Normocellular Community-Acquired Bacterial Meningitis in Adults: A Nationwide Population-Based Case Series.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: This study sought to describe the clinical presentation of normocellular community-acquired bacterial meningitis in adults. METHODS: Using the prospective, nationwide, population-based database of the Danish Study Group of Infections of the Brain, the study identified all adults with normocellular community-acquired bacterial meningitis who were treated at departments of infectious diseases in Denmark from 2015 through 2018. Normocellular community-acquired bacterial meningitis was defined as a cerebrospinal fluid leukocyte count of up to 10×106/L combined with detection of bacteria in the cerebrospinal fluid. Outcome was categorized according to the Glasgow Outcome Scale at discharge. RESULTS: Normocellular cerebrospinal fluid was observed in 12 of 696 (2%) patients with community-acquired bacterial meningitis. The median age was 70 years (range 17 to 92 years), and 8 of 12 (67%) patients were male. All patients had symptoms suggestive of community-acquired bacterial meningitis and pathogens identified by culture (Streptococcus pneumoniae, n=10; Staphylococcus aureus, n=1) or polymerase chain reaction (Neisseria meningitidis; n=1) of the cerebrospinal fluid. Bacteremia was found in 9 of 12 (75%) patients, and 1 of 12 (8%) presented with septic shock. None of the patients had serious underlying immunocompromising conditions. The median times from admission to lumbar puncture and meningitis treatment were 2.5 hours (interquartile range 1.1 to 3.9 hours) and 2.6 hours (interquartile range 0.9 to 22.8 hours). In 3 of 11 (27%) patients, empiric treatment for community-acquired bacterial meningitis was interrupted by a normal cerebrospinal fluid cell count. The overall case-fatality rate was 3 of 12 (25%); meningitis treatment was interrupted in 1 of these patients, and 8 of 12 (67%) had a Glasgow Outcome Scale score of 1 to 4 at discharge. CONCLUSION: Normocellular community-acquired bacterial meningitis is not very common, but it is important to consider and may be associated with a pneumococcal cause.

Association of Lumbar Puncture With Spinal Hematoma in Patients With and Without Coagulopathy.

Importance: Coagulopathy may deter physicians from performing a lumbar puncture. Objective: To determine the risk of spinal hematoma after lumbar puncture in patients with and without coagulopathy. Design, Setting, and Participants: Danish nationwide, population-based cohort study using medical registries to identify persons who underwent lumbar puncture and had cerebrospinal fluid analysis (January 1, 2008-December 31, 2018; followed up through October 30, 2019). Coagulopathy was defined as platelets lower than 150 × 109/L, international normalized ratio (INR) greater than 1.4, or activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) longer than 39 seconds. Exposures: Coagulopathy at the time of lumbar puncture. Main Outcomes and Measures: Thirty-day risk of spinal hematoma. Risks were provided as numbers and percentages with 95% CIs. Secondary analyses included risks of traumatic lumbar puncture (>300 × 106 erythrocytes/L after excluding patients diagnosed with subarachnoid hemorrhage). Adjusted hazard rate ratios (HRs) were computed using Cox regression models. Results: A total of 83 711 individual lumbar punctures were identified among 64 730 persons (51% female; median age, 43 years [interquartile range, 22-62 years]) at the time of the procedure. Thrombocytopenia was present in 7875 patients (9%), high INR levels in 1393 (2%), and prolonged APTT in 2604 (3%). Follow-up was complete for more than 99% of the study participants. Overall, spinal hematoma occurred within 30 days for 99 of 49 526 patients (0.20%; 95% CI, 0.16%-0.24%) without coagulopathy vs 24 of 10 371 patients (0.23%; 95% CI, 0.15%-0.34%) with coagulopathy. Independent risk factors for spinal hematoma were male sex (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.72; 95% CI, 1.15-2.56), those aged 41 through 60 years (adjusted HR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.01-3.81) and those aged 61 through 80 years (adjusted HR, 2.20; 95% CI, 1.12-4.33). Risks did not increase significantly according to overall severity of coagulopathy, in subgroup analyses of severity of coagulopathy by pediatric specialty or medical indication (infection, neurological condition, and hematological malignancy), nor by cumulative number of procedures. Traumatic lumbar punctures occurred more frequently among patients with INR levels of 1.5 to 2.0 (36.8%; 95% CI, 33.3%-40.4%), 2.1 to 2.5 (43.7%; 95% CI, 35.8%-51.8%), and 2.6 to 3.0 (41.9% 95% CI 30.5-53.9) vs those with normal INR (28.2%; 95% CI, 27.7%-28.75%). Traumatic spinal tap occurred more often in patients with an APTT of 40 to 60 seconds (26.3%; 95% CI, 24.2%-28.5%) vs those with normal APTT (21.3%; 95% CI, 20.6%-21.9%) yielding a risk difference of 5.1% (95% CI, 2.9%-7.2%). Conclusions and Relevance: In this Danish cohort study, risk of spinal hematoma following lumbar puncture was 0.20% among patients without coagulopathy and 0.23% among those with coagulopathy. Although these findings may inform decision-making about lumbar puncture by describing rates in this sample, the observed rates may reflect bias due to physicians selecting relatively low-risk patients for lumbar puncture.