Hyponatremia in Children With Bacterial Meningitis

Conclusion: Hyponatremia occurred in 66.4% of the assessed pediatric bacterial meningitis patients. Moderate and severe hyponatremia affected the severity of pediatric bacterial meningitis. Only severe hyponatremia affected the short-term prognosis of patients with pediatric bacterial meningitis. We recommend that patients with pediatric bacterial meningitis who exhibit convulsions and increased blood glucose levels should be checked for severe hyponatremia. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment of hyponatremia. Introduction Hyponatremia, defined as a serum sodium concentration of <135 mmol/L, is particularly common in neurological patients because of the major role of the central nervous system (CNS) in the regulation of sodium and water homeostasis (1). Among disorders of the CNS, hyponatremia is commonly noted in encephalitis, meningitis, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and head injury. However, the incidence of hyponatremia varies vastly among these neurologic diseases (2, 3). Specifically, hyponatremia in the context of infection reflects the severity of the underlying disease state and is associated with prolonged hospitalization and significant morbidity (4). Bacterial meningitis is a severe infectious disease of the membranes lining the brain, which results in high rates of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Neurologic and systemic complications occur in large proportions of children and adults with bacterial meningitis (5). In ...
Source: Frontiers in Neurology - Category: Neurology Source Type: research