Symptoms, causes and treatment of purulent meningitis in adults and newborns

Meningitis is an inflammatory change that has occurred in the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord under the influence of infectious agents. The disease is life-threatening, subject to mandatory treatment in a hospital.

Purulent meningitis: causes

This kind of disease is caused by bacteria (there is still serous meningitis, which is caused by viruses, some bacteria, fungi). They can get on the shell in various ways:

1. Airborne droplets. So bacteria penetrate, which are the cause of primary purulent meningitis: meningococcus, hemophilic rod, less often - pneumococcus. These microbes "come" from a healthy carrier or a sick person (he does not necessarily have meningitis), from whom they lived on the nasal and pharyngeal mucosa. Further they cause inflammation of the nasopharynx of the new "host," get into the lymph and with it are carried to the membranes of the brain. With such diseases, a person can shortly feel a sore throat, runny nose, a small temperature, then symptoms of actually meningitis appear.

2. Contact. This means that the cerebral cortex, previously sterile, came into contact with something where there were bacteria capable of causing purulent meningitis, in sufficient quantity (one or two bacteria will not cause the disease). This can be with mastoiditis, sinusitis, purulent otitis, frontal, osteomyelitis of the bones of the skull or penetrating injury in this area.

3. With blood flow. When blood is contaminated, bacteria get into the blood from the hearth in the lungs, the cranial cavity, and other places. Even untreated abscess on the buttock can cause purulent meningitis.

Symptoms of the disease

Initially, there are usually either catarrhal phenomena or symptoms indicating that there is a purulent otitis, mastoiditis, sinusitis, osteomyelitis or phlegmon under the lower jaw. Then signs of directly purulent meningitis develop:

- high body temperature;

- severe headache;

- lethargy, drowsiness;

- a person tries to lie down and get up as little as possible;

- there may be convulsions;

- inadequacy or depression of consciousness, which develop after a person for some time felt a headache against a background of high temperature;

- nausea, vomiting;

- photophobia;

- increased skin sensitivity;

- the inability to reach the sternum with the chin with the mouth closed.

In children, the leading symptoms are drowsiness, monotonous crying, refusal to eat and being picked up, the bulging of the fontanel, which appear against the background of increased body temperature.

A rash that does not fade and does not turn pale when stretching the area of the skin beneath it can also be a symptom of meningitis in children and adults.

Purulent meningitis in newborns: consequences

Often after meningitis, there are consequences:

- headaches that occur, mainly, when weather changes and increased mental work (for example, attempts to read or build a pyramid);

- loss of hearing or sight;

- slower mental development of the child: it becomes more difficult for him to memorize the material, he can not always repeat the actions from the first time after the educator or the parent;

- mental disorders.