Incidence and treatment of post-meningitic hydrocephalus in the newborn.

Neonatal meningitis remains an extremely difficult diagnostic and therapeutic problem. In spite of the large number of antibiotics which are now at our disposal, the mortality remains high and few survivors escape without sequelae. In recent years, however, improvements have occurred not only in the management of the acute illness, but also in the treatment of a common complication, namely hydrocephalus. This aspect is the main topic of our paper. We shall only deal with infants who were anatomically normal at birth. The much larger problem of meningitis in infants born with spina bifida cystica is outside the scope of this investigation and has been dealt with elsewhere (Lorber and Segall, 1962; Lorber and Bruce, 1963; Bruce and Lorber, 1964). Our material is derived from two sources. First, 7 infants born at the Jessop Hospital for Women, Sheffield, who developed neonatal meningitis. Secondly, 19 infants who were treated at Sheffield Children's Hospital for hydrocephalus which they had developed as a result of neonatal meningitis.