Meningoencephalitis - Causes, symptoms and treatment. MF.

Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain.
Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes of the brain.
If these two processes are observed simultaneously, they speak of meningoencephalitis.

Causes of meningoencephalitis

Encephalitis is a poly-tyological disease, it can be infectious, infectious-allergic, toxic.

• Primary encephalitis - viral - arbovirus, tick, mosquito, enterovirus, herpetic, influenza, with rabies, epidemic;microbial and rickettsial - with neurosyphilis, typhus.
• Secondary encephalitis - with measles, rubella, chickenpox, postvaccinal, microbial - staphylococcal, meningococcal, streptococcal, tubercular, malarial, toxoplasmic.
• Encephalitis can be caused by a demyelinating process.
• Acute parotitic meningoencephalitis.
• Inflammatory diseases of the paranasal sinuses may be complicated by meningoencephalitis.

Meningoencephalitis is a serious disease of the brain and brain membranes. It can be a complication of encephalitis and meningitis. In any case, such complication is a serious pathology, aggravates the course of the disease,

has an unfavorable prognosis with possible fatal outcome of , residual neurologic deficit. The severity of residual phenomena depends on the degree of damage to the central nervous system.

Symptoms of meningoencephalitis

Meningoencephalitis can be manifestation of the general septic process of .Weighted state of the patient, there is a high temperature, intense headache, a violation of consciousness - inhibition, excitement, delirium, deafness, vomiting, cramps are possible( often in childhood).Appear meningeal signs - Kerniga, Brudzinsky, rigidity of the occipital muscles, photophobia, hyperesthesia. Symptoms of brain damage are attached to meningeal symptoms - defeat of cranial nerves, anisoreflexia, hemiparesis, impaired coordination, disorders of higher nervous activity - mental abnormalities, aphasic disorders, apraxia, alexia,. .. depending on the affected area - frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital,more often cortical departments. Meningoencephalitis can be complicated by abscess formation of the brain, the cerebellum.

Meningococcal encephalomyelitis in a child

is heavily undergoing influenza haemorrhagic meningoencephalitis .High fever, chills, impaired consciousness up to the coma, often epileptic seizures. To the meningeal symptoms are added a variety of focal brain lesions. Is a complication of the flu.

Herpetic meningoencephalitis can be serous or hemorrhagic. Is a complication of herpetic infection.

Two-wave viral meningoencephalitis - is caused by one of the strains of a filtering virus of tick-borne encephalitis. You can get infected through the milk of sick animals, the vectors of the disease are ixodid mites. Spring-summer seasonality is observed. The onset of acute, high fever, chills, headache, vomiting, myalgia, sleep disorders, meningeal signs. After 5-7 days, the temperature normalizes, and a second wave develops in 10 days and neurological symptoms of CNS damage are added to meningeal symptoms - pyramidal, cerebellar, vegetative disorders. The course of the disease is favorable, the focal symptomatology regresses. Long-term asthenia is maintained.

Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by protozoa and affects the nervous system and internal organs. The pathomorphological picture of the lesion of the central nervous system corresponds to serous-productive leptomeningitis. There is an expansion of the ventricles, hydrocephalus, granulomas scattered throughout the brain, containing parasites, some already calcified. Symptoms of toxoplasmic encephalomeningitis are cerebral and meningeal symptoms, paresis and paralysis of the limbs, convulsions, doubling, impaired coordination, varying degrees of impairment of consciousness. These disorders are manifested against the background of infectious disease - nedomaganiya, muscle and joint pain, temperature, chills, swollen lymph nodes, generalized maculopapular rash, possible damage to the liver, heart, kidneys. The patient's condition is severe, treatment in an infectious disease clinic. In the diagnosis help computer studies, serological reactions. With congenital toxoplasmosis, the brain is affected, petrifications are formed along the course of the vessels, the membranes of the brain are affected - central paralysis, convulsions, retardation of mental development and the organ of vision.

Very rare disease - amoebic meningoencephalitis - severe lightning with very high lethality. Infection with amoeba occurs in freshwater warm water sources. The incubation period is from 1 to 14 days.

Brucellosis meningoencephalitis is characterized by a lesion of the soft dura mater, the formation of brucellosis granulomas, a prolonged course with paresis and paralysis, and mental disorders. The disease is very difficult, the patient needs hospitalization in a specialized department - infectious, resuscitative, for the period of rehabilitation into a neurological department. Diagnosis is individual - tests, biochemical, serological, brain tomography, lumbar puncture are mandatory. ..

Treatment of meningoencephalitis

Treatment is similar to therapy of encephalitis and meningitis. In the acute period - antibiotics, hormones, symptomatic treatment - individually.

Rehabilitation after meningoencephalitis

In the process of rehabilitation, depending on the residual phenomena, neuroprotectors, antioxidants, agents that improve blood circulation and microcirculation, vitamins B and E, venotonics, anticholinesterase drugs, sedatives, anticonvulsants, physiotherapy, reflexology are used. .. The patient who underwent neuroinfection- observed in a neurologist, consists in dispensary registration and receives individual recommendations. Probably and sanatorium treatment.

Doctor neurologist Kobzeva S.V.

On September 23, 2012, it was precisely from meningoencephalitis that the former Minister of Defense of Russia Pavel Grachev died on the 65th year of his life. Pavel Grachev was hospitalized on September 12 in serious condition and passed away on September 23, not seeking the efforts of doctors. This once again confirms the seriousness of the disease.