Bacterial meningitis and its acute complications.

Abstract

Objectives: Bacterial meningitis is a major global issue. Despite medical advancement in childcare in the last couple of decades, bacterial meningitis is still causing significant mortality and morbidity. We planned this study to find out the frequency as well acute complications related to bacterial meningitis in our setting. Study Design: Observational descriptive study. Setting: Department of Pediatrics, Unit-II, Children Hospital Chandka Medical College / SMBBMU, Larkana. Period: 1^st August 2018 to 31^st March 2019. Material & Methods: A total of 78 children, aged 1 month to 10 years with bacterial meningitis were included. Acute complications were noted in all the children during their hospital stay along with mortality. A predesigned proforma was used to record all the study data. Results: Out of a total of 78 cases, 48 (61.5%) male and 30 (38.5%) female. There were 13 (16.7%) children between aged 1 to 3 months, 25 (32.1%) between 3 to 6 months, 27 (34.6%) between the age of 6 months and 5 years and 13 (16.7%) above the age of 5 years. Complications were noted in 33 (42.3%) cases, seizure following 4 days followed by subdural effusion and hydrocephalus were the commonest. Children having complications were compared with those who had none, hospitalization history prior to the admission turned out to be statistically significant (p = 0.010). Overall, mortality was noted in 3 (3.9%) children. Conclusion: Bacterial meningitis still remains a major disease related to significant morbidity and mortality. Most complications are seen in young children. Seizure and subdural effusion are noted to be the most frequent complications.