Clinical Edge

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Cerebral Venous Thrombosis & Steroids in Meningitis

Open Forum Infect Dis; 2017 Oct; Gallegos, et al

Giving adults with bacterial meningitis adjunctive steroids may increase the risk of delayed cerebral venous thrombosis, suggests a recent retrospective multicenter analysis at 10 Houston hospitals.

  • Among 120 patients with culture-verified community-acquired bacterial meningitis, 82 (68%) received adjunctive IV steroids for an average of 3.8 days.
  • Delayed cerebral venous thrombosis was observed in 9 (7.5%) patients with bacterial meningitis, only 1 of whom had not received steroids.
  • 5 of the meningitis patients who had DCT had been infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae, 1 by Listeria monocytogenes, and 2 with Staphylococcus aureus.

Citation:

Gallegos C, Salazar L, Tobolowsky F, et al. Use of adjunctive steroids and incidence of delayed cerebral venous thrombosis in adults with bacterial meningitis. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2017;4 (Suppl 1): S7-S8. doi:10.1093/ofid/ofx162.019.