ArticleCritical care (London, England)2026
Herpes simplex virus type 2 encephalitis in critically ill adults: A retrospective analysis of EURECA and Herpetics cohort studies.
Article in Critical care (London, England), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
27 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHerpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is the leading cause of sporadic infectious encephalitis. Although typically associated with benign meningitis, HSV-2 can also cause encephalitis in adults, a condition that remains poorly characterized in intensive care unit (ICU). We aimed to compare the characteristics, management, and outcomes of critically ill adult with HSV-2 and HSV-1 encephalitis.
methodsWe performed a retrospective analysis of adults with herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) admitted to the ICU in two large multicenter cohorts. Patients were classified according to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) HSV genotype. The primary endpoint was unfavourable outcome at 3 months, defined as a modified Rankin Scale score 3–6.
resultsAmong 285 HSE patients, 17 (6%) had HSV-2 encephalitis (age 60 [53–67] years, female sex 58.8%). Although the proportion of immunocompromised status did not differ significantly between groups (29.4% vs 15.4%, p = 0.13), HSV-2 cases had a significantly higher prevalence of HIV infection (17.6 vs 1.5%, p < 0.01), less frequent brain MRI abnormalities (85.7% vs 97.7%, p = 0.01) and similar CSF findings compared to HSV-1 cases. The duration of intravenous acyclovir treatment was shorter for HSV-2 cases (18 [4–21] days) versus 21[20–21] days, p = 0.04). Unfavourable outcome occurred in 9/16 (56.3%) patients with HSV-2 encephalitis and in 175/236 (74.2%) patients with HSV-1 encephalitis (p = 0.25).
conclusionEncephalitis caused by HSV-2 represent a consistent proportion of severe HSE. Clinical presentation and outcomes and broadly comparable to those of HSV-1 cases, underscoring the importance of early recognition and standardized management of encephalitis caused by HSV, regardless of genotype.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.