[Mortality of rare purulent meningitis, (Staphylococcus, Listeria Pseudomonas, Proteus, Klebsiella, E. coli, Salmonella). An epidemiologic study using the literature from the last 30 years]

Abstract

3056 cases of purulent meningitis caused by seven rare microorganisms (Staphylococci, Listeria, Pseudomonas, Proteus, Klebsiella, E. coli, Salmonella) were collected from the West European and North American literature of the last 30 years. The average lethality has been calculated for the periods ranging from 1948 to 1962 and from 1963 to 1979 in order to compare the results due to the use of penicillin and older antibiotics with those accomplished with ampicillin and the aminoglycosides. After 1963 the death-rate of each type of meningitis decreased considerably (except for Salmonella meningitis): the lethality of the whole group fell from 48% to 33%, in the subgroup of gram-negative meningitis from 55% to 38%, and in the group of neonatal gram-negative meningitis from 67% to 52%. The best results were seen in Proteus meningitis where lethality decreased from 55% to 15%. In E. coli meningitis there was a reduction from 60% to 43% only. Using the chi-square test all these differences were highly significant (p less than 0.001).