A 51-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of Listeria monocytogenes meningitis. Diffuse cerebral edema appeared after improvement of meningitis with appropriate treatment and worsened for two months. Due to brain herniation, brain tissue leaked through the incision made during the drain insertion in a hydrocephalus surgery. We found pathological evidence of significant neutrophil infiltration with a few lymphocytes without bacterial detection in the degraded brain tissue. The present case indicates that fatal cerebral edema with significant neutrophil infiltration may develop even after appropriate treatment for L. monocytogenes meningitis.
Keywords: Listeria monocytogenes; bacterial meningitis; cerebral edema; pathology; post-infectious immune-mediated inflammation.