Tuberklar í heila- og mønuserki: Meningitis tuberculosa

Abstract

The present material covers 17 cases of tuberculous meningitis found among 517 invertors carefully investigated during the period 1937 to 1947. None of the patients received antibiotic treatment and all died during the period of observation. Three of the meningitis cases constituted the final stage of preceding miliary tuberculosis; the patients were ill for between two and four months before death. In the remaining 14 cases meningitis was primary, death following after two to three weeks illness. The frequency of meningitis among >the invertors was 4 %. The following observations were made with regard to the interval
between inversion and the occurrence of meningitis: The majority, about 70 %, of the meningitis cases occurred within six months of inversion (1. table). With children all cases occurred within the first year after inversion (2. table), with adults, 11 cases in all, nine occurred within the first year, while two appeared much later, two and a half and three years respectively, after the primary tuberculous infection (3. table).