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Results of the Treatment of 191 Children with Tuberculous Meningitis in the Years 1949–54
Author(s) -
WASZHÖCKERT OLE,
DONNER MÄRTA
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1963.tb08791.x
Subject(s) - medicine , tuberculous meningitis , pediatrics , incidence (geometry) , meningitis , streptomycin , mortality rate , surgery , antibiotics , physics , microbiology and biotechnology , optics , biology
Summary The primary series of 191 children treated for tuberculous meningitis at the Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki, in 1949–54 is analysed to provide a background for the 103 recoveries who were given a thorough follow‐up examination. The incidence of patients under 12 months of age was 12.5 per cent, and of those under 2 years of age 44.6 per cent. The youngest patient to recover was 7 weeks of age when tuberculous meningitis was diagnosed. The treatment schedules followed were mainly those used in the centres of D ebré and C occhi , although some personal modifications were introduced and new trends adopted. The primary mortality rate dropped to 11 per cent in the last years from the high figure of 75 per cent in the first year of the streptomycin era. However, late mortality up to 3 1/2 years after discontinuing the treatment increased the final, total mortality rate of the series to 44.5 per cent. This emphasizes the importance of long‐term treatment, which is now the generally accepted method in the treatment of tuberculous meningitis.