Non-traumatic gram-negative bacillary meningitis in the Detroit Medical Center, 1964-1974; (with special mention of cases due to Escherichia coli).

Clinical and autopsy records of eight adults with non-traumatic gram-negative bacillary meningitis who were admitted to the hospitals of the Wayne State University--Detroit Medical Center during the years 1964 to 1974 were reviewed. There were five community-acquired cases, and five patients died. Escherichia coli was the causative enteric bacillus in six cases. Community-acquired infections were due to Esch. coli in four of the patients. Each of the patients with a community-acquired infection was a chronic alcoholic. Esch. coli bronchopneumonias, urinary infections, and bacteremias seeding the meninges were usual. Shunting contaminated portal venous blood through the liver in patients with Laennec's cirrhosis, or bypassing the liver with similar infected blood from a genitourinary source by way of Batson's perivertebral plexus draining into the cerebral dural sinuses may be important in the pathogenesis of these infrequent cases of nontraumatic gram-negative bacillary meningitis. Spontaneous gram-negative bacteremias, peritonitis, bronchopneumonias, and now "meningitis" may be a constellation of special complications of the alcoholic. Mortality among 25 patients with Esch. coli meningitis reported from 1922 to 1974 is approximately 50%, and has not changed appreciably during the antibiotic era. Mortality, however, is significantly higher in nosocomially acquired cases. Early and more recent cases have had bloody, xanthochromic pleocytoses indicative of leptomeningeal arterial and venous vasculitis, and far advanced disease. Since causative/enteric bacilli have been susceptible to antimicrobial agents employed, another mode of antibacterial administration, perhaps utilizing parenteral plus intraventricular dosing, particularly for patients acquiring their infections in the hospital, may be required.