Should initial ICU admission become a standard of care for acute bacterial meningitis ?

Excerpt

The decision to admit adult patients with bacterial meningitis to the intensive care unit (ICU) is usually based on severe illness at hospital presentation, including altered mental status, seizures, respiratory and/or cardiovascular complications. However, as some patients may deteriorate rapidly within the first hours after hospital presentation, prophylactic ICU admission could be discussed in stable patients at high risk of secondary deterioration. However, the profile of these patients is not known. Two recent studies published in “Annals of Intensive Care” provide important information on this topic [1, 2]. A summary and comparison of the patients directly admitted to the ICU from the two studies are shown in Table 1. …