Loading...
With the widespread use of conjugated vaccines against Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae, the vast majority of meningitis now is aseptic. However, many children presenting with what eventually proves to be aseptic meningitis are hospitalized for 2 to 3 days and given parenteral antibiotics while we wait for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) bacterial cultures. Nigrovic and colleagues previously developed a Bacterial Meningitis Score (BMS), which performed well in differentiating bacterial from aseptic meningitis at one study site. Now, they have validated the use of the BMS in a larger, more diverse patient population seen at a network of 20 academic medical centers.
Patients between 29 days and 19 years of age, all of whom had CSF…