Table 2.
Characteristics of patients at hospital admission and treatment by causative agent
| N. meningitidis | S. pneumoniae | Other | Not known | p-value | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N. (29) | N. (17) | N. (10) | N. (29) | N. (85) | ||
| Median age at onset yrs – (IQR) | 4.0 (1.5 – 7.6) | 1.4 (0.5 - 4.6) | 0.6 (0.3 - 7.0) | 5.2 (0.4 – 8.2) | 0.085 | 3.3 (0.5 - 7.1) |
| Median interval days between onset and hospital admission – (IQR) | 1 (1–2) | 3 (2–3) | 1 (0–2) | 1 (1–4) | 0.005 | 1 (1–3) |
| Number of patients treated with antibiotics prior to hospitalization – (%) | 14 (48.3) | 8 (47.1) | 2 (20.0) | 18 (62.1) | 0.238 | 42 (49.4) |
| Median interval hours between suspected diagnosis of meningitis and first in-hospital antibiotic administration – (IQR) | 1 (1–2) | 1 (1–2) | 1 (1–2) | 1 (1–2) | 0.995 | 1 (1–2) |
| In vitro susceptibility testing available <3 days since admission, excluded unknown agent – (%) | 22 (75.9) | 12 (70.6) | 8 (80.0) | - | 0.691 | 42 (75.0) |
| Type of antibiotic administered – (%) | <0.001 | |||||
| III-generation cephalosporin | 18 (62.1) | 2 (11.8) | 1 (10.0) | 16 (55.2) | 29 (34.1) | |
| III-generation cephalosporin + glycopeptides | 3 (10.3) | 7 (41.2) | 1 (10.0) | 1 (3.4) | 17 (20.0) | |
| III-generation cephalosporin + other antibiotics | 8 (27.6) | 8 (47.1) | 5 (50.0) | 11 (37.9) | 10 (11.8) | |
| Other | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 3 (30.0) | 1 (3.4) | 29 (34.1) | |
| Number of patients treated with dexamethasone – (%) | 15 (51.7) | 14 (82.4) | 6 (60.0) | 19 (65.5) | 0.222 | 54 (63.5) |
| Number of patients who received dexamethasone within 1 hour of antibiotic – (%) | 9 (31.0) | 10 (58.8) | 5 (50) | 10 (34.5) | 0.544 | 34 (40) |
| Median duration days of dexamethasone treatment – (IQR) | 6 (4–12) | 4 (4–12) | 7 (4–11) | 6 (4–10) | 0.951 | 6 (4 – 12) |
IQR: interquartile range.