Background: To examine the clinical characteristics and therapeutic outcome of Escherichia (E.) coli adult bacterial meningitis (ABM).
Methods: The demographic data, clinical and laboratory features and therapeutic outcome of 25 E. coli ABM patients were examined retrospectively. The clinical features of the reported E. coli ABM cases were also included for analysis.
Results: The 25 E. coli ABM patients included 12 women and 13 men, aged 33-78 years (mean= 59.9). Of these 25 patients, 13 had a postneurosurgical state as the underlying condition. As to the underlying medical conditions, diabetes mellitus was the most common, found in 9 of the 25 cases. Of the clinical manifestation, severe neurologic manifestations including altered consciousness (19), hydrocephalus (10), seizure (7) acute/subacute cerebral infarct (5), brain abscess (2), subdural empyema (1) and spinal abscess (1) were found, and the other clinical features included fever (21), septic shock (8), bacteremia (6) and hyponatremia (3). With treatment, the mortality rate was more than 44.0% and the presence of septic shock was a significant prognostic factor. With literature review, 29 community-acquired and 12 postneurosurgical E. coli ABM cases were enrolled, and severe neurologic manifestation and high mortality rate were also found.
Conclusions: This preliminary overview of E. coli ABM revealed the underlying conditions, severe neurologic manifestation and high mortality rate. Further large-scale, prospective study is needed for a better delineation of this specific infectious syndrome of adult E. coli meningitis.