Purulent Pericarditis Complicating Meningococcal Meningitis

Abstract

PERICARDITIS, complicating meningococcal meningitis, is extremely rare. The exact incidence is not known, but in a series of reviews^1-5 totaling 9,714 nonfatal cases of meningococcal infections during the sulfonamide era, this complication was found only twice. Sporadic cases^6-14 have also been reported during this time, but unfortunately these reports give no information as to frequency. This paper will report another patient with pericarditis complicating meningococcal meningitis. The patient is the youngest with this complication reported to date and, in addition, her pericarditis was purulent and was massive enough to produce life-threatening cardiac tamponade. Report of a Case A 3-year-old white girl was admitted to St. Vincent's Hospital on Sept 16, 1962, in semicoma. Apart from a mild "cold" one week earlier, the child was well until two days before admission when she developed fever, vomiting, and headache. Her symptoms persisted and she became increasingly lethargic. She was then