ArticleBMJ open2022
Clinical management of community-acquired meningitis in adults in the UK and Ireland in 2017: a retrospective cohort study on behalf of the National Infection Trainees Collaborative for Audit and Research (NITCAR).
Article in BMJ open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Sex differences in bacterial meningitis and associations with socioeconomic indicators: a systematic review and meta-analysis with metaregression.BMJ global health · 2025Pooled it
- Community-acquired bacterial meningitis in adults in Denmark (2015-2023): a prospective, nationwide, population-based cohort study.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- Outcomes of adults with community-acquired bacterial meningitis in the Netherlands: a prospective nationwide cohort study.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- Article
- Initial management and outcome of community-acquired bacterial meningitis in two French ICUs over a period of fifteen years.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Observational
- A multifaceted intervention to improve diagnosis and early management of hospitalised patients with suspected acute brain infections in Brazil, India, and Malawi: an international multicentre intervention study.Lancet (London, England) · 2025Observational
- Intracranial complications in adult patients with severe pneumococcal meningitis: a retrospective multicenter cohort study.Annals of intensive care · 2024Article
- Computed Tomography of the Head Before Lumbar Puncture in Adults With Suspected Meningitis in High-HIV Prevalence Settings.Open forum infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Article
- A retrospective analysis of 20,178 adult neurological infection admissions to United Kingdom critical care units from 2001 to 2020.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Case Report: Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) meningo-encephalitis associated with traumatic brain injury - a case report from Lao PDR.Wellcome open research · 2024Article
- Characteristics and prognostic factors of bacterial meningitis in the intensive care unit: a prospective nationwide cohort study.Annals of intensive care · 2023Article
- Adjunctive dexamethasone treatment in adults with listeria monocytogenes meningitis: a prospective nationwide cohort study.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- An Overview of Clinical Manifestations of Dermatological Disorders in Intensive Care Units: What Should Intensivists Be Aware of?Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- The management of acute meningitis: an update.Clinical medicine (London, England) · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo assess practice in the care of adults with suspected community-acquired bacterial meningitis in the UK and Ireland.
designRetrospective cohort study.
setting64 UK and Irish hospitals.
participants1471 adults with community-acquired meningitis of any aetiology in 2017.
resultsNone of the audit standards, from the 2016 UK Joint Specialists Societies guideline on diagnosis and management of meningitis, were met in all cases. With respect to 20 of 30 assessed standards, clinical management provided for patients was in line with recommendations in less than 50% of cases. 45% of patients had blood cultures taken within an hour of admission, 0.5% had a lumbar puncture within 1 hour, 26% within 8 hours. 28% had bacterial molecular diagnostic tests on cerebrospinal fluid. Median time to first dose of antibiotics was 3.2 hours (IQR 1.3-9.2). 80% received empirical parenteral cephalosporins. 55% ≥60 years and 31% of immunocompromised patients received anti-
conclusionThis study demonstrates that clinical care for patients with meningitis in the UK is not in line with current evidence-based national guidelines. Diagnostics and therapeutics should be targeted for quality improvement strategies. Work should be done to improve the impact of guidelines, understand why they are not followed and, once published, ensure they translate into changed practice.
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