PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - V R Challa
AU  - R S Marx
TI  - Pathology of Yersinia enterocolitica meningitis.
AID  - 10.1136/jnnp.43.5.455
DP  - 1980 May 01
TA  - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
PG  - 455--457
VI  - 43
IP  - 5
4099  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/43/5/455.short
4100  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/43/5/455.full
SO  - J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry1980 May 01; 43
AB  - Yersinia enterocolitica, a gram negative aerobic non-haemolytic bacillus, has been identified as a cause of meningitis only once before and the neuropathological features of Y. enterocolitica meningitis have not been reported in the literature. We describe the pathological features of a case of acute fatal meningitis caused by Y. enterocolitica, serotype 0:18, in a 47-year-old male alcoholic with cirrhosis. The organism presumably reached the meninges via the blood stream from the abdominal cavity. Intravascular fibrin thrombi, both recent and organising, were associated with multiple foci of necrosis in the brain. In spite of vigorous antibiotic therapy for three weeks the organism was cultured from the brain at autopsy. Among the various infections caused by Y. enterocolitica, meningitis appears to be the most difficult to eradicate.