|
ABSTRACT
Acute Bacterial Meningitis, a rather dangerous and lethal
infection , has a high prevalence in infants and children . The most important and dangerous manifestation of this disease is the loss of hearing , which has been reported to be between 5% to 20% .
Lately , Dexamethazone has been added to drug regimen in the treatment of Bacterial Meningitis to decreased the risk of loss of hearing , post infection. In this study, we evaluated the effects of Dexamethazane in infants and children with Bacterial Meningitis who were admitted to the Departments of Pediatric Infectious disease in four hospitals in Tehran Iran , during 1992 - 1994 . This study was a Sequential Randomized, Double Blind Control Trial done on 50 infants and children
The Cases included 9 girls and 16 boys , ages 5.7 + 4.4 whereas the controls had 11 girls and 14 boys ages 5.9 + 3.9 the cases were treated with 300 mg /Kg body weight /day and chloramphenicol 100 mg/Kg body weight and Dexamethazone 0.6 mg/Kg body weight in 24 hours in 4 doses (qid) for 4 days. The Controls were treated with the same drug regimen without the Dexamethazone. Hearing tests were done at the initiation of the therapy , 3 months and 12 months post therapy at the Tehran Resalat Hospital . The results were evaluated using the Chi-Sequential method .
Results showed that the loss of hearing in the Controls was 16% as compared to the loss of hearing in the Cases which was 4% this difference of 12% is Statistically significant.
Based on the results of this study and similar studies done on this subject, we believe that Dexamethazone should be used in the treatment of Bacterial Meningitis in infants and children to reduce the risk of loss of hearing.
| 
