PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hoogman, Martine
AU  - van de Beek, Diederik
AU  - Weisfelt, Martijn
AU  - de Gans, Jan
AU  - Schmand, Ben
TI  - Cognitive outcome in adults after bacterial meningitis
AID  - 10.1136/jnnp.2006.110023
DP  - 2007 Oct 01
TA  - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
PG  - 1092--1096
VI  - 78
IP  - 10
4099  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/78/10/1092.short
4100  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/78/10/1092.full
SO  - J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry2007 Oct 01; 78
AB  - Objective: To evaluate cognitive outcome in adult survivors of bacterial meningitis.Methods: Data from three prospective multicentre studies were pooled and reanalysed, involving 155 adults surviving bacterial meningitis (79 after pneumococcal and 76 after meningococcal meningitis) and 72 healthy controls.Results: Cognitive impairment was found in 32% of patients and this proportion was similar for survivors of pneumococcal and meningococcal meningitis. Survivors of pneumococcal meningitis performed worse on memory tasks (p<0.001) and tended to be cognitively slower than survivors of meningococcal meningitis (p = 0.08). We found a diffuse pattern of cognitive impairment in which cognitive speed played the most important role. Cognitive performance was not related to time since meningitis; however, there was a positive association between time since meningitis and self-reported physical impairment (p<0.01). The frequency of cognitive impairment and the numbers of abnormal test results for patients with and without adjunctive dexamethasone were similar.Conclusions: Adult survivors of bacterial meningitis are at risk of cognitive impairment, which consists mainly of cognitive slowness. The loss of cognitive speed is stable over time after bacterial meningitis; however, there is a significant improvement in subjective physical impairment in the years after bacterial meningitis. The use of dexamethasone was not associated with cognitive impairment.