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Spinal cord dysfunction with quadriplegia complicating pneumococcal meningitis
Author(s) -
PHELAN M.,
MANSON J. I.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1754.1987.tb02178.x
Subject(s) - medicine , meningitis , etiology , lumbar puncture , surgery , spinal cord , streptococcus pneumoniae , cerebrospinal fluid , antibiotics , psychiatry , biology , microbiology and biotechnology
A case of pneumococcal meningitis complicated by brain‐stem herniation and flaccid quadriplegia is described, from which the patient, an 11 year old boy, made a partial recovery. The patient had suffered a head injury with skull fracture some years previously; this was his third episode of meningitis. The aetiology of the quadriplegia has not been fully established, but is presumed to be of vascular nature at spinal cord level, associated with an acute hypotensive episode. Preventative aspects of recurrent bacterial meningitis and brain‐stem herniation following lumbar puncture are stressed.