The characteristics of post-neurosurgical bacterial meningitis in elective neurosurgery in 2012: A single institute study.

Objective: Most post-neurosurgical meningitis research has been focused on large cohorts with numerous cases followed over several years. However, the characteristics of post-neurosurgical meningitis in an entire single year are still unclear, and knowledge of these characteristics might influence the selection of appropriate antibiotics and therapeutic strategies for the successful management of this disease. Our aim is to obtain a better understanding of post-neurosurgical meningitis over a single entire year.

Materials And Methods: Patients with positive meningitis cultures after neurosurgical operations in our hospital during the entire year of 2012 were included in the analysis. We report demographic characteristics, morbidity during different seasons, clinical and bacteriological profiles, sensitivity to antibiotics and causes of the post-neurosurgical meningitis infections in our cohort.

Results: Of the 6407 patients who underwent neurosurgical procedures during the study period, 146 developed post-neurosurgical meningitis and the overall incidence of meningitis was 2.28%. The incidence of meningitis was significantly higher in patients who underwent surgery in the autumn and winter than spring or summer (p=0.000). The most common organisms causing meningitis were Gram-positive bacteria, followed by the Klebsiella and Baumannii species. Compound sulfamethoxazole (52.6%) and vancomycin (10.5%) were the most active antibiotics against Gram-positive bacteria strains, whereas meropenem (43.8%) and polymyxin (18.8%) were active against Gram-negative bacillus strains.

Conclusions: Post-neurosurgical meningitis usually occurs in the autumn and winter of the year in our hospital. Gram-positive organisms, which are sensitive to compound sulfamethoxazole and vancomycin, are the most common causative pathogens of post-neurosurgical meningitis in the northern mainland of China.