A 19-year-old woman presented with purpura fulminans and septic shock; subsequently, progressive coagulopathy, widespread purpura fulminans associated with meningococcemia, severe shock, respiratory, and renal failure developed. This clinical course was associated with depletion of functional protein C levels to < 5%. We describe her clinical course and therapy with human recombinant activated ...

Meningococcal myocarditis is a rarely diagnosed infection and could be the consequence of primary invasive infection or late immunologic complications. An unusual presentation of meningococcemia in an immunocompetent adult is described, with Neisseria meningitidis identified as the cause of selective right-sided heart failure in a case of acute myocarditis.

Meningococcal disease is a global burden and remains one of the leading infectious causes of death in children, with an estimated annual death rate of 170,000 worldwide. Despite these figures, the management of children with severe meningococcal sepsis and septic shock remains suboptimal. This review presents an overview of this condition including the epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical manif...

A case is reported of a 70-year-old woman with chronic meningococcemia. She had intermittent fever, purpuric papules disseminated on the trunk and limbs, headache, arthralgia and myalgia for 5 weeks. Treatment with ceftriaxone was rapidly successful. Dr P. Morier, Service de Dermatologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CH–1011 Lausanne (Switzerland) Chronic meningococcemia is defined...

Sometimes a patient’s life can be saved but the price that must be paid, in terms of the burdens of treatment and the painful sequelae, can be considered too high. In this month’s “Ethics Rounds,” we present such a case from a Dutch ICU. We ask 2 experts, 1 from the United States and 1 from the Netherlands, to comment on the case. Dr Peter J. Smith is a developmental pediatrician at the Univers...