Linezolid is Associated with Improved Early Outcomes of Childhood Tuberculous Meningitis

BACKGROUND: Linezolid serves as an important component for the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis although there is little published data about linezolid use in children, especially in childhood tuberculous meningitis (TBM). METHODS: In this study, we retrospectively reviewed records of childhood TBM patients who started treatment between January 2012 and August 2014. A total of 86 childhood TBM patients younger than 15 years old were enrolled. Out of 86 children, 36 (41.9%) received the regimen containing linezolid. RESULTS: Thirty-two (88.9%) of 36 linezolid-treated cases had favorable outcomes, and 35 (70.0%) cases were successfully treated in the control group. The frequency of favorable outcome of linezolid group was significantly higher than that of control group (P = 0.037). In addition, compared with cases with fever clearance time of 4 weeks (P = 0.000) than linezolid group. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the frequency of adverse events between the two regimens (P = 0.896). In addition, the patients with adverse events were more likely to have treatment failure, the P value of which was 0.008. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that linezolid improves early outcome of childhood TBM. The low frequency of linezolid-associated adverse effects highlights the promising prospects of its use for treatment of childhood TBM.