Prognostic factors in meningococcal disease.

Two groups of prognostic factors in meningococcal disease can be distinguished. One group is associated with fatal outcome and the other with permanent psychoneurological sequelae. A review of the literature is given and the results discussed. The importance of selecting prognostic factors that reflect central events in the pathogenesis is stressed. The factors can then be used as a well standardized means to describe the degree of illness in a patient or a group of patients. A basis for comparison of patient groups from different times and places as well as patient groups treated in different ways is thus established.