Meningitis

As a bonus, we discussed meningitis today and the benefits of steroids.

Here is a very digestible nugget on meningitis, from Yas Moayedi and Dr Gold himself:
Acute Bacterial Meningitis in Adults

Reminder of the Infectious Disease Society of the Americas (IDSA) guidelines on steroid use in bacterial meningitis in adults:

- Give dexamethasone (0.15 mg/kg q6h for 2–4 days with the first dose administered 10–20 min before, or at least concomitant with, the first dose of antimicrobial therapy) in adults with suspected or proven pneumococcal meningitis.
- Continue dexamethasone for 4 days only if CSF Gram stain reveals gram-positive diplococci, or if blood or CSF cultures are positive for S. pneumoniae.

- Adjunctive dexamethasone should not be given to adult patients who have already received antimicrobial therapy, because administration of dexamethasone in this circumstance is unlikely to improve patient outcome.

Have a groovy day!