Clinical outcome and neurological sequelae in serologically confirmed cases of Japanese encephalitis patients in Assam, India.

ABSTRACT

We report the clinical outcome and prognostic factors in 39 cases of childhood Japanese Encephalitis admitted to a tertiary hospital of Upper Assam and followed up for 421 days in the community. The mortality rate was 20.5% in our study. The mean GCS (9.97 +/- 0.91) was higher in surviving cases than the fatal cases (GCS 7.5 +/- 1.78) at admission. The fatal cases died within 4.75 +/- 3.19 days in the hospital. All the patients had low BMI (surviving cases 13.54 +/- 2.3; fatal cases 12.05 +/- 0.12) and were anemic. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was clear in 91.4% cases but pressure and protein content were increased in all cases. About 10% cases had parkinsonian features at the time of discharge. Residual symptoms remained in about one third of cases even after 421 days.