A Case of Pneumococcal Meningitis Associated with Posttraumatic Cerebrospinal Fluid Rhinorrhea.

Kim,  Eun Joo; Song,  Myoung Hoon; Sung,  Tae Jung; Shin,  Seon Hee; Kim,  Sung Koo; Kim,  Hong Dae; Lee,  Kon Hee; Yoon,  Hae Sun

Case Report

Journal of the Korean Child Neurology Society 2006;14(2):348-352.
Published online November 30, 2006.

A Case of Pneumococcal Meningitis Associated with Posttraumatic Cerebrospinal Fluid Rhinorrhea.

Eun Joo Kim, Myoung Hoon Song, Tae Jung Sung, Seon Hee Shin, Sung Koo Kim, Hong Dae Kim, Kon Hee Lee, Hae Sun Yoon

¹Department of Pediatrics, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Seoul, Korea. pedkimsk@teramail.com
²Department of Radiology, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

Bacterial meningitis after head trauma is a rare complication, but the cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) leakage after head trauma greatly increases the risk of bacterial meningitis. Most of the infections passes through the defects in the basal skull fracture, and Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common organism. MRI, coronal thin sections of cranial CT and radioiosotope cisternography are considered to diagnose the CSF fistulae. We report a case of a 14-year-old girl with pneumococcal meningitis complicated by CSF rhinorrhea following an asymptomatic period of 3 years after head trauma. We found a bone defect of the cribrium of the skull base by means of paranasal sinus CT scanning and MRI.

Key Words: Posttraumatic meningitis, CSF rhinorrhea