Two Cases of Suspected Typhoid Encephalitis Treated with High Dose Dexamethasone

ABSTRACT

Typhoid fever is one of the important contagious diseases. Typhoid fever of severe category is defined as the condition in which a febrile patient shows shocks or an altered state of consciousness ranging from delirium to coma. High dose dexarnethasone therapy is considered very effective in these life-threatening conditions. We report two severe hrphoid fever cases, which were treated with high dose dexarnethasone (dexamethasone 3mg/kg IV and lmg/kg q6hrs for 48 hrs) with a great success and we believe that one of the two cases is the first Korean case in the literature who had cerebellar ataxia and cortical tremor as a manifestation of the CNS involvement of typhoid fever.