Assessment of cases of aseptic meningitis among children

Abstract

Background: Aseptic meningitis refers to a clinical syndrome of meningeal inflammation in which common bacterial agents cannot be identified in the CSF. The present study was conducted to assess cases of aseptic meningitis in children. Materials & Methods: 56 children diagnosed with aseptic meningitis of both genders were enrolled. Clinical presentation, laboratory findings in blood and CSF, duration of antimicrobial therapy, days of hospitalization, and outcome was recorded. Results: Out of 56 children, boys were 32 and girls were 24. The mean duration of fever was 24.6 hours, duration of hospitalization was 4.2 days, antimicrobial therapy >2 days was seen in 13, antimicrobial therapy <2 days in 33 and no antimicrobial therapy in 10. WBC counts / mm3 was 11810, lymphocytes >50% in 30, hemoglobin (mg/dl) was 12.4 and C-reactive protein was 7.6 mg/dl. Conclusion: Aseptic meningitis is commonly seen among infants and children, hence careful analysis of case should be done.