Tuberculose neuro-méningée: profil clinique, paraclinique, thérapeutique et évolutif de 21 cas

The purpose of this study was to investigate the epidemiological, clinical, paraclinical, therapeutic and evolutionary profile of patients with neuromeningeal tuberculosis. We conducted a retrospective study of 21 patients with neuromeningeal tuberculosis hospitalized in the Neurological Department between January 2002 and December 2016. Women were slightly more represented than men (SR=0.9), the age group between 20 and 40 years (47.61%) was predominant. The mean time between symptom onset and diagnosis was 25 days. Inaugural symptoms mainly included common signs (100%). Neurological signs included headache (61.90%), vomiting (47.61%) and motor deficit (33.33%). Lumbar puncture and brain CT scan were performed in 100% of cases. All patients received antibiotic therapy and corticosteroids. Outcome was favorable in 61.90% of cases, fatal in 9.52% of cases and marked by the persistence of neurological sequelae in 28.57% of cases. Neuromeningeal tuberculosis is an extremely polymorphic disease in its clinical and radiological manifestation. Early diagnosis and management is mainly associated with a favorable outcome.