Meningitis in children is an acute infectious disease in which inflammation of the membranes of the brain and spinal cord develops. Children's meningitis is severe. If antimicrobial therapy is not started in a timely manner or is inadequate, severe complications develop in children with meningitis. The Yusupov Hospital has all the conditions for the treatment of meningitis:
- the wards are equipped with forced-air ventilation and air conditioning;
- patients are provided with individual personal hygiene products and dietary nutrition;
- Patients are examined using devices from leading global manufacturers and modern laboratory diagnostic methods;
- Doctors use the latest generation antibacterial and antiviral drugs, which are highly effective and have minimal side effects.
Severe cases of meningitis are discussed at a meeting of the expert council with the participation of candidates and doctors of medical sciences. Leading specialists in the field of treatment of infectious diseases of the central nervous system make a collegial decision regarding the management of patients with severe meningitis. The clinic accepts patients aged 18+.
Causes of meningitis in children
Children's meningitis can be primary (develop without previous signs of a pathological process caused by the corresponding pathogen) or secondary, when damage to the meninges is preceded by other manifestations of infection (mumps, measles, leptospirosis).
The following microorganisms can cause meningitis:
- bacteria (pneumococcus, meningococcus, Haemophilus influenzae and tuberculosis bacilli, spirochetes);
- viruses (enteroviruses of the Coxsackie-ECHO group, mumps and measles virus);
- chlamydia;
- mycoplasma;
- protozoa;
- mushrooms.
Meningitis most often affects children who belong to the following risk groups:
- premature;
- those born with intrauterine fetal hypoxia or as a result of difficult labor;
- with congenital or acquired immunodeficiency;
- who have undergone craniocerebral, spinal, vertebral trauma, neurosurgical operations and surgical interventions on the abdominal organs.
Children under 5 years of age are more likely to get meningitis. The risk of getting meningitis increases in children who attend preschool institutions and schoolchildren. Children who do not follow the rules of personal hygiene, swallow contaminated water when swimming in reservoirs, and eat food contaminated with rodent excrement are more likely to get sick. The causative agents of meningitis are transmitted by ixodid ticks.
There is a high risk of developing meningitis in children who have not been vaccinated against mumps, measles and rubella, or who have missed vaccinations with Haemophilus influenzae, meningococcus, or pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. When traveling to places dangerous for meningitis, children must be vaccinated no later than 2 weeks before the child’s departure.
The source of pathogens of childhood meningitis are sick people or bacteria carriers. Infectious agents can be transmitted by airborne droplets (with dust and saliva particles), contact (through dirty hands), waterborne, transmissible (through insect bites) and fecal-oral mechanisms. The entry points for infection are the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract and digestive organs. The causative agents of meningitis spread throughout the body in the following ways:
- hematogenous (through blood vessels);
- lymphogenous (lymph flow);
- geirogenic (with cerebrospinal fluid).
Meningitis in children is accompanied by the following pathological changes:
- increased production of cerebrospinal fluid;
- increased intracranial pressure and permeability of the blood-brain barrier;
- toxic damage to the brain substance;
- disorders of cerebral circulation, especially microcirculation;
- liquorodynamic disorder;
- hypoxia (insufficient oxygen supply) of the brain.
Eventually, swelling of the brain tissue develops. This is facilitated by the spread of the inflammatory process to the ventricles and brain matter, which is characteristic of purulent meningitis. With viral meningitis, cerebral edema is less pronounced, but the medulla is also involved in the pathological process. When the inflammatory process spreads to the brain, focal neurological symptoms appear.
Edema and swelling of the brain leads to its displacement with compression of the brain stem by the cerebellar tonsils. At the same time, the function of vital organs, especially breathing, is disrupted in children, which can lead to death. After suffering viral meningitis, most children do not develop complications. Children who have had bacterial meningitis may be retarded in mental development, and they sometimes develop impaired vision and hearing to the point of complete deafness.
