Cranial ultrasound in the detection of postmeningitic complications in the neonates.

Serial cranial ultrasound examinations were performed through the anterior fontanel to detect and follow the complications of bacterial meningitis in 16 neonates. The final results included normal findings in 9 patients, and abnormal in the other 7 cases. Among the latter, 5 patients with hydrocephalus were sequentially found after the second week of the disease and the earlier the onset, the larger the ventricular dilation. One ventriculitis showed polycystic loculi with abnormal septa in the advanced stage. Cystic low attenuation lesion with mass effect at a later stage of meningitis specified one patient with brain abscess. Progressive dilatation of ventricular systems without associated growth of head girth disclosed a process of brain atrophy. They had neither obvious neurological signs nor specific CSF findings clinically, but their sonograms showed the abnormal changes which were finally proved by CT scans. The potential value of cranial ultrasound in the detection of post-meningitic complication besides CT scan is stressed.