Linezolid is Associated with Improved Early Outcomes of Childhood Tuberculous Meningitis.

BACKGROUND

Linezolid serves as an important component for the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis although there is little published data about linezolid use in children, especially in childhood tuberculous meningitis (TBM).

METHODS

In this study, we retrospectively reviewed records of childhood TBM patients who started treatment between January 2012 and August 2014. A total of 86 childhood TBM patients younger than 15 years old were enrolled. Out of 86 children, 36 (41.9%) received the regimen containing linezolid.

RESULTS

Thirty-two (88.9%) of 36 linezolid-treated cases had favorable outcomes, and 35 (70.0%) cases were successfully treated in the control group. The frequency of favorable outcome of linezolid group was significantly higher than that of control group (P = 0.037). In addition, compared with cases with fever clearance time of <1 week, the control group had more cases with fever clearance time of 1-4 weeks (P = 0.010) and >4 weeks (P = 0.000) than linezolid group. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the frequency of adverse events between the two regimens (P = 0.896). In addition, the patients with adverse events were more likely to have treatment failure, the P value of which was 0.008.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data demonstrate that linezolid improves early outcome of childhood TBM. The low frequency of linezolid-associated adverse effects highlights the promising prospects of its use for treatment of childhood TBM.