All issues > Volume 33(4); 1990

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1990;33(4):544-552. Published online April 30, 1990.

Three cases of Chronic Meningitis.

Soon Mee Park¹, In Sang Jeon¹, Hyung Ro Moon¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Received: September 25, 1989;  Accepted: September 25, 1989.

Abstract

Chronic menigitis may be defined as symptoms and signs of meningeal inflammation lasting four weeks or longer. It has many infectious and noninfectious causes. Tuberculous and fungal infections are the most common causes. But no cause is found in the significant portions of chronic meningitis(idiopathic meningitis), although most appear to respond to treatment either with anti-tuberculosis drugs or steroids. Intereastingly eosinophilic pleocytosis in the cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) are found in some cases, which has no casuse except allergy. The clinical features include gradual onset and varying combinations of headache, fever, menin- gism and altered mental state, with pleocytosis in CSF and, in some cases, focal nerological signs. The symptoms and signs are not spontaneously resolved without proper treatment except some cases. We report two cases of chronic meningitis with no definable causes and one case of chronic meningitis with eosinophilic pleocytosis in CSF, which is associated with allergy. A brief review of related literatures was made.

Keywords :Chronic meningitis