[Pneumococcal meningitis in children: clinical findings, most frequent serotypes and outcome].

Objective: To determine mortality, morbidity, antimicrobial susceptibility and the most frequent serotypes in children admitted to hospital due to pneumococcal meningitis

Methods: Patients with meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae detected by culture in cerebrospinal fluid or blood, aged between 1 month and 15 years old, admitted to two hospitals in the city of São Paulo, were included in the study. Susceptibility to penicillin was determined by the disk diffusion test using oxacillin 1 microg disk. If the inhibition area with oxacillin disk was less than 20mm, the strains were tested for penicillin, chloramphenicol, ceftriaxone, vancomycin and sulfamethoxazole /trimethoprim using the E test.