Frequency of meningitis in neonates with late onset sepsis

Objective: this study was planned to determine the frequency of neonatal meningitis in late onset sepsis. study design: cross sectional survey. place and duration of study: department of neonatology,children hospital & institute of child health,lahore in a period of 6 month from 05-11-12 to 06-05-13. patients and methods: 150 patients of late onset sepsis visiting the neonatology department of children’s hospital,fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled. demographical profile including age,gender,and hospital registration no. were recorded. informed verbal consent was obtained from guardian of each child. csf(cerebrospinal fluid) was drawn and report of csf examination will be assessed for the presence or absence of meningitis results: among the enrolled 150 patients 104 (69.3%) were male and 46 (30.7%) were female. only 7 patients (4.7%) which were < 1.5 kg of weight,there were 82 patients (54.7%) between 1.5 - 2.5 kg of weight and 61 patients (40.7%) > 2.5kg. out of 150 patients 34 patients (22.7%) were found to have meningitis whereas 116 patients (77.3%) were found to have no meningitis. it is found that among 34 patients having meningitis tlc count is positive (> 25 cells) in 32(94.1%) patients and negative (< 15 cells) in 2(5.9%) patients (p=0.01). there are 23 cases (67.6%) having positive protein count (>120mg/dl) and 11 patients (32.4%) having negative protein count (< 120 mg/dl)(p=0.02). there are 28 patients (82.3%) having positive glucose count (< 40 mg/dl) and 6 patients (17.7%) having negative glucose count (> 40 mg/dl) (p <0.001). among the 34 cases of meningitis 23 cases (67.6%) were male and 11 cases (32.4%) were female (p=0.02). conclusion: it is concluded from this study that the frequency of meningitis in late onset sepsis is very high in our setup. this grave disease is associated with serious complications so the morbidity and mortality are still on the rise,especially so in developing countries like pakistan. a lot has to be done to avert this adverse situation regarding prevention and treatment. address this issue aiming at increasing neonatal services,up to mark obstetrical care and early referral to a well equipped health care facility so that morbidity and mortality can be reduced. © 2015,pakistan pediatric journal. all rights reserved.