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Table 5 Cause of death and timing of appropriate antibiotic treatment for bacterial meningitis. Data was available for 74 of 84 patients. No significant differences in time to treatment for bacterial meningitis was found (Kruskal-Wallis test, p > 0.05)

From: The cause of death in bacterial meningitis

 

Time to treatment for bacterial meningitis

0 to 2 h

2 to 6 h

> 6 h

Data available for 74 of 84 patients

Hours (median and quartiles)

23 of 74 (31%)

16 of 74 (22%)

35 of 74 (47%)

1. CNS complications (n = 32)

4.4 (1.3 to 22.4)

11 of 23 (48%)

6 of 16 (38%)

15 of 35 (43%)

 Brain herniation (n = 7)

1.0 (0.5 to 8.6)

5

0

2

 Brain infarct (n = 5)

25.0 (5.2 to 52.5)

1

0

4

 Brain haemorrhage (n = 1)

2.0

1

0

0

 Intractable seizures (n = 6)

11.0 (2.3 to 31.0)

1

2

3

 Global brain injury /unresponsive (n = 9)

10.5 (3.3 to 34.8)

1

2

6

 CNS complications not further specified (n = 4)

2.4 (1.3 to 4.5)

2

2

0

2. Systemic complications (n = 28)

5.3 (1.9 to 21.5)

7 of 23 (30%)

8 of 16 (50%)

13 of 35 (37%)

 Circulatory failure /septic shock (n = 10)

8.2 (1.0 to 40.8)

3

1

6

 Respiratory failure (n = 7)

6.0 (3.5 to 20.0)

1

3

3

 Other organ failure (n = 2)

9.5 (1.0 to 18.0)

1

0

1

 Systemic complications not futher specified (n = 9)

3.9 (1.9 to 18.2)

2

4

3

3. Combined CNS and systemic causes (n = 3)

1.3 (0.6 to 4.5)

2 of 23 (9%)

1 of 16 (6%)

0 of 35 (0%)

4. Sudden unexpected death (n = 5)

18.0 (1.9 to 39.0)

1 of 23 (4%)

1 of 16 (6%)

3 of 35 (9%)

5. Withdrawel of care (n = 4)

4.2 (0.9 to 20.0)

2 of 23 (9%)

0 of 16 (0%)

2 of 35 (6%)

6. Unable to determine cause of death (n = 2)

25.1 (24.0 to 26.3)

0 of 23 (0%)

0 of 16 (0%)

2 of 35 (6%)