PRIMARY MENINGOCOCCAL PERICARDITIS WITH CARDIAC-TAMPONADE IN AN INFANT

Purulent pericarditis rarely affects infants and the diagnosis may be established only at necropsy.(1) Very few cases of primary pericarditi s caused by the meningococcus have been reported. Those that have been reported were principally in adults.(2) Most cases of meningococcal p ericarditis or secondary effusions in children have been associated wi th meningitis or have arisen as a later complication of septicaemia.(1 ) In 1972, Roberts and Neff(3) reported the case of a 2-year-old child who appeared to have had Group B meningococcal pericarditis caused by organisms invading directly from an adjacent infection of the lung. W e report on a case of primary meningococcal pericarditis with cardiac tamponade in an infant due to Group B Neisseria meningitidis.