Life-threatening bacterial infection of the meninges
System affected: nervous
Predominant age: neonates, infants, and elderly
Predominant sex: male = female
Antecedent upper respiratory infection
Fever, headache, vomiting, photophobia
Seizures, confusion
Nausea, rigors; sweats, weakness
Elderly: subtle findings including confusion
Infants: irr...
Initiate empiric antibiotic therapy immediately after lumbar puncture (lumbar puncture > Abx). If head CT scan is needed, initiate antibiotic therapy immediately after blo...
Brainstem auditory—evoked response hearing test for infants before hospital discharge
Vaccinations
4 doses Hib conjugate vaccine recommended durin...
McGill F, Heyderman RS, Panagiotou S, et al. Acute bacterial meningitis in adults. Lancet. 2016;388(10063):3036–3047. [View Abstract on OvidMedline]
Tunkel A, Hasbun R, Bhimraj...
G00.9 Bacterial meningitis, unspecified
G00.2 Streptococcal meningitis
G00.8 Other bacterial meningitis
G00.1 Pneumococcal meningitis
G00.3 Staphylococcal meningitis
G00.0 Hemophilus meningitis
Consider meningococcal infection in the differential diagnosis of any patient presenting with the sudden onset of febrile illness, especially when petechiae and/or meningeal signs are ...
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