Abstract:
Abstract
Background
Neonatal meningitis continuous to be serious problem with high mortality and morbidity. Most
commonly occur in first month of life than any other period with incidence 0.2-0.5 per 1000 live
birth. The presenting clinical feature of meningitis is more or less similar to those of sepsis. The
absence of specific clinical manifestation makes the diagnosis of meningitis more difficult in
neonate than older children.
Method: Prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pediatrics,
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and GUH on 171 neonate presenting with neonatal sepsis. A
pretested and structured questionnaire containing sociodemographic, clinical, Laboratory
parameters was used for data collection. The data was collected after we obtain ethical clearance
by trained GPs, residents, interns and nurses. The data was registered on Microsoft excel spread
sheet initially and analyzed using SPSS version24.0computer software. At confidence interval a
p-value<0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Result: The prevalence of neonatal meningitis among suspected sepsis was 19.3%. The male:
female ratio was l.7:1. Mean gestational age 37.4 weeks (SD±2.4), mean birth weight
2766.7(SD±649) and mean postnatal age 9.74(SD±8.54) with none of this parameters being
significantly different from those without meningitis. But prolonged labor?24hours and ROM?18
hours are significantly associated with those meningitis (P=0.001 and P=0.00 respectively).
The most common clinical features were failure to breast feed 29(87.9%), seizure 7(21.2%),
vomiting 15(45.5%), fever 23(69.7%), altered mentation 4(12.1%). Blood culture and CSF culture
only positive in 6% neonate with meningitis
