[The effect of modern therapy on the course of purulent meningitides (author's transl)].

No fundamental change in the pathogen spectrum of purulent meningitis in adults has occurred between 1951 and 1974. It should be noted, however, that there is an increase in gram-negative pathogens. The lethality has in fact decreased during the period of observation, but the prognosis of pneumococcal meningitis has not been decisively improved by high dosage therapy with penicillin or ampicillin.