Effect of Follow-Up Cerebrospinal Fluid Cultures in Post-Neurosurgical Patients’ Outcome with Gram-Negative Bacterial Meningitis/Encephalitis

BACKGROUND: To investigate the factors associated with follow-up CSF cultures (FUCCs) in post-neurosurgical patients with gram-negative bacterial meningitis/encephalitis and the effect of FUCCs on treatment management and patient outcomes. METHODS: This single-centered retrospective cohort study enrolled post-neurosurgical patients with gram-negative bacterial meningitis/encephalitis at a tertiary-care university hospital between 2012 and 2022. The risk factors for 28-day mortality were evaluated using multivariate Cox analysis. FUCC-related risk factors were also analyzed. RESULTS: Among the 844 enrolled patients, 504 (59.7%) underwent FUCC, and FUCC was found to be associated with lower rates of both all-cause (hazard ratio (HR) 0.391; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.235–0.651; p<0.001) and attributable mortality (HR 0.463; 95% CI, 0.239–0.897; p=0.023) in Post-neurosurgical patients diagnosed with Gram-negative bacterial meningitis/encephalitis. Moreover, the results of the study underscored that patients with persistent gram-negative bacterial meningitis/encephalitis had a lower all-cause/attributable short-term survival rate according to 28-day mortality Kaplan–Meier analysis (P=0.001/0.006). CONCLUSION: Performing FUCC has been demonstrated to lower mortality rates in Post-neurosurgical patients suffering from Gram-negative bacterial meningitis/encephalitis. The higher mortality rate observed in patients with persistent gram-negative bacterial meningitis/encephalitis suggests that performing FUCC is a crucial component of proper patient care and management, and is therefore recommended for use by clinicians as a standard practice. This finding underscores the significance of consistent implementation of FUCC in the management and prognosis of patients with Post-neurosurgical infections.