ABSTRACT
Bacterial meningitis is associated with disabling sequelae in a significant proportion of patients. It is associated with high mortality, risk of neuropsychological sequelae and risk of cognitive impairment the purpose of this study is to assess cognitive and neurological complications in adult patients with bacterial meningitis. A total of 45 patients with bacterial meningitis and 16 patients with tuberculous meningitis were enrolled. They were subjected to full medical history taking and clinical examination, full neurological examination on admission and discharge. Mini mental state examination [MMSE] and Wechsler memory scale [WMS] were used to assess cognitive function. The results showed that the ischemic brain insult [87.88%] followed by cranial nerves affection [32.42%] were the commonest neurological complication detected on discharge. Cognitive impairment was detected in 53.66% of patients using MMSE.WMS showed that orientation, information and logical memory were the most common affected. Cognitive and neurological complications were not statistically related to age or etiology [P>0.05]. Longer duration until diagnosis [Beta = -.18, p <0.001], presence of intracranial complications [Beta = -.12, p <0.005], need for mechanical ventilation [Beta = -.79, p <0.001] and drug abuse [Beta = -0.11, p < 0.05] were significant predictors of worse outcome assessed by Glasgow outcome score