MENINGOCOCCAL SEPSIS – CASE REPORT

Abstract

Background. Fulminant meningococcemia is a rare but severest manifestation of infection with Neisseria meningitidis. Despite the most advanced treatment the death rate remains between 30–70%. Usually, it occurs in children, while immune system deficiencies are frequently discovered in elderly patients. The incidence of meningococcal infections in Slovenia is about 0.43/100,000 inhabitants and 4.1% of these are in the form of fulminant meningococcal sepsis.Patients and methods. The paper describes the case of a 17year-old patient with fulminant meningococcal sepsis, which he had already recovered from once before as a child. According to the prognostic factors, the expected mortality was above 75%. Continuous dialysis was implemented in addition to conventional treatment. The patient died due to central nervous system involvement after 10 days.Conclusions. We propose that the described treatment succeeded in slowing the expected fulminant course of the disease. A disturbance in the patient’s immune system was demonstrated and Neisseria meningitidis W-135 was isolated.

Keywords

• meningococcal sepsis
• Neisseria meningitidis