Corticosteroids for Acute Bacterial Meningitis

Death and long-term disabilities are common outcomes of acute bacterial meningitis, especially in developing countries, even when highly effective antibiotic therapy is given. Therefore, improvement in the outcomes of acute bacterial meningitis is unlikely to come from developments in chemotherapy but rather from measures that alleviate the damage done before the causative bacteria are killed. Some of this damage is caused by bacterial toxins, but experiments in animals suggest that host inflammatory responses induced by bacterial products are also involved.1 Thus, there are strong theoretical grounds for believing that antiinflammatory drugs should improve the outcomes of acute bacterial meningitis. Establishing . . .