Abstract
Background: Neonatal meningitis is a serious infection, no clinico-biological score has been established to accurately identify neonates at high risk of developing neonatal meningitis.Objective: The aim of this work is to clarify the place of lumbar puncture in neonatal infections and to identify the predictive factors of meningeal localization in case of neonatal infection.Materials and methods: This is a prospective study of 861 observations of newborns hospitalized in the pediatric department of Mohammed V Hospital, CHU of Tangier, during a 14-month period from 1January 2019 to 29 February 2020. Among these patients the diagnosis of neonatal infection (NNI) was retained in 473 cases. Initial lumbar puncture was performed in 206 cases (43%). We included neonates aged 0 to 28 days, suspected of NNI, who had a lumbar puncture. Neonates treated as carriers of neonatal infection without sufficient anamnestic and clinical evidence and with an inconclusive or unperformed biological workup were excluded from the study.Results: During the study period, 861 newborns were hospitalized and the diagnosis of neonatal infection was retained in 473 cases, a rate of 55%, and the initial lumbar puncture was performed in 206 cases (43%). 61 newborns were diagnosed with neonatal meningitis, with fever in 76% of cases, 85% with convulsions, hypotonia and/or refusal to suckle in 63% of cases, and CRP >25mg/l in 67% of newborns.Conclusion: Lumbar puncture is the only diagnostic means of meningitis. Indeed, the indication of this procedure should not be systematic, but it should be dictated by the careful and simultaneous analysis of the anamnestic, clinical and biological criteria evocative of the infection and its meningeal localization in order to diagnose meningitis early and treat it correctly. The need to establish scores combining these different parameters, in order to accurately identify newborns at high risk of developing neonatal meningitis
Publisher
Mediterranean BioMedical Journals