Clinical Insights and Outcomes in Community-Acquired Acute Bacterial Meningitis versus Postoperative Bacterial Meningitis

To compare the demographics, clinical characteristics, and in-hospital mortality rates between community-acquired bacterial meningitis cases and postoperative bacterial meningitis. Analytical study. Place and Duration of the Study: Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Diskapi Yildirim Beyazit Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkiye, from 2016 to 2022. A total of 153 patients diagnosed with bacterial meningitis were included and categorised into two groups: 95 (62.1%) with community-acquired bacterial meningitis (CABM) and 58 (37.9%) with postoperative bacterial meningitis (POBM). Demographics, clinical features, laboratory, paraclinical findings, treatments, and outcomes of the cases were compared. Data were retrieved using a standard data collection form from the electronic medical records. A substantial portion (58.8%) of all patients had comorbidities. Fever was the common symptom in all groups. Headache, neck stiffness, nausea, and vomiting were more often observed in the CABM group (p