Clinical evaluation of encephalitis.

A series of 325 or 31.11% children out of 1045 inpatients of neurological cases diagnosed as encephalitis was reviewed in Pediatrics Neurology Subdivision Child Health Department, Medical School, University of North Sumatera/Dr. Pirngadi Hospital Medan since 1985 to 1988. Boys were more than girls with the ratio of 4:3. Most encephalitis cases (249 or 76.80%) of children occurred in the early age namely before 3 years. Associated diseases were respiratory disease in 61 (45.61%) cases, gastrointestinal disease in 48 (34.67%) cases and measles in 13 (9.35%) cases. There were three mayor clinical features of encephalitis i.e. sudden fever, convulsion and consciousness depression. The cerebrospinal fluid investigation might be normal. There was however mild to moderate lymphocitic pleiositosis with cell numbers varying from 20-200 per cubic mm. The protein content was slightly elevated. The mortality rate was 21.53% (70 cases). There was no significant difference (P greater than 0.05) found between mortality rate of boys and girls. There was no significant difference (P greater than 0.05) found between mortality rate below and above 3 years of age.