Da. Mcmillan et al., Community-acquired bacterial meningitis in adults: Categorization of causes and timing of death, CLIN INF D, 33(7), 2001, pp. 969-975
The relationship between cause and timing of death in 294 adults who had be
en hospitalized with community-acquired bacterial meningitis was investigat
ed. For 74 patients with community-acquired bacterial meningitis who died d
uring hospitalization, the underlying and immediate causes of death were id
entified according to the criteria of the World Health Organization and Nat
ional Center for Health Statistics. Patients were classified into 3 groups:
category I, in which meningitis was the underlying and immediate cause of
death (59% of patients; median duration of survival, 3 days); category II,
in which meningitis was the underlying but not immediate cause of death (18
%; median duration of survival, 10 days); and category III, in which mening
itis was neither the underlying nor immediate cause of death (23%; median d
uration of survival, 32 days). In a substantial proportion of adults hospit
alized with community-acquired bacterial meningitis, meningitis was neither
the immediate nor the underlying cause of death. A 14-day survival end poi
nt discriminated between deaths attributable to meningitis and those with a
nother cause.