[P3-27] Neurologic sequelae of bacterial meningitis in Japanese children
Objectives: To elucidate the long-term neurologic sequelae of bacterial meningitis in Japanese children. Methods: Clinical charts of children with bacterial meningitis aged 1 month to 15 years, who were admitted to Saitama Children’s Medical Center in Japan between 1990 and 2009, were retrospectively reviewed. Specifically, the sequelae including death, hearing loss, epilepsy, intellectual and motor disabilities were evaluated at the time of discharge and the last follow-up at least 1 year after the discharge. Results: 169 (99 boys) were enrolled. The median age at the onset of meningitis was 1.2 years, and the median follow-up period was 2.2 years. At the time of discharge, 15 were dead (9%), 25 had hearing loss (15%), and 29 had neurological sequelae (17%): epilepsy in 9; intellectual disabilities in 13; and motor disabilities in 26. At the last follow-up, 17 were dead (10%), 25 had hearing loss (15%), 51 had neurologic sequelae (30%): epilepsy in 35; intellectual disabilities in 42; motor disabilities in 24. Severe neurologic sequelae were identified in 19 (11%). The epilepsy phenotypes included generalized epilepsy in 2, focal epilepsy in 29, and West syndrome in 4. Discussion: In this study, the incidence of neurologic sequelae was higher than that of previous studies, where they were mostly evaluated at the time of discharge. Because epilepsy and intellectual disabilities are usually not evident at the time of discharge in pediatric cases of bacterial meningitis, we recommend to follow up for at least 2 years after the onset.