Prognosis of bacterial meningitis patients according to clinical criteriae and laboratory results on admission

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this study was to detect prognostic factors of acute bacterial meningitis on admission. Methods: Analysis of clinical and laboratory data of 60 adult acute bacterial meningitis patients admitted at Alexandria fever hospital between July 2014 to February 2015 including: age, sex, vital signs, conscious level, CSF findings, routine lab tests, metabolic acidosis, and causative organism was done initially on admission and then correlated with the patients' outcome on discharge which was either complete recovery (68.3%), recovery with sequelae (13.3%), or death (18.3%). Results: Factors associated with poor outcome were: Old age (P= 0.019), hypotension (p=0.003), low GCS (P=0.001), uremia (p=0.041), metabolic acidosis (P= 0.016), history of chronic hypertension (P= 0.018), Delayed referral &long duration of symptoms (P= 0.024). Conclusion: Acute bacterial meningitis patients having any of those poor prognostic criteria should be considered high risk patients and should have the priority for ICU admission and intensive monitoring.