Incidence and Etiology of Septic Meningitis in a Metropolitan County Hospital

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
From January 1, 1969 to December 31, 1974, 98,446 patients were admitted to Ben Taub General Hospital, one of the Harris County District Hospitals and a major teaching institution for Baylor College of Medicine. Spinal fluid specimens from 17,638 (17.9%) patients were cultured, and 787 (4.5%) cultures were positive for pathogenic microorganisms. Haemophilus influenzae, type B, was most frequently isolated (23.8%), followed by Streptococcus pneumoniae (16.0%), Staphylococcus aureus (9%), Neisseria meningitidis (7.3%), and Enterococcus (7.3%). Previous studies have indicated that more than 70% of all the septic meningeal infections are caused by H. influenzae, meningococcus and pneumococcus. At this hospital these organisms were isolated from 47% of the specimens studied, indicating a changing pattern in the etiology of purulent meningitis. Although pediatric patients constituted only 11.5% of the admissions, 58.4% of the pathogenic microorganisms were cultured from these patients.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: