• Romain Sonneville, Etienne de Montmollin, Damien Contou, Ricard Ferrer, Mohan Gurjar, Kada Klouche, Benjamine Sarton, Sophie Demeret, Pierre Bailly, Daniel da Silva, Etienne Escudier, Loic Le Guennec, Russel Chabanne, Laurent Argaud, Ben Hadj SalemOmarODepartment of Intensive Care Medicine, Poissy-Saint Germain Hospital, Poissy, France., Martial Thyrault, Aurélien Frerou, Guillaume Louis, Gennaro De Pascale, Janneke Horn, Raimund Helbok, Guillaume Geri, Fabrice Bruneel, Ignacio Martin-Loeches, Fabio Silvio Taccone, Jan J De Waele, Stéphane Ruckly, Quentin Staiquly, Giuseppe Citerio, Jean-François Timsit, and EURECA Investigator Study Group.
• Université Paris Cité, INSERM UMR 1137, 75018, Paris, France. romain.sonneville@aphp.fr.
• Intensive Care Med. 2023 May 1; 49 (5): 517529517-529.

PurposeWe aimed to characterize the outcomes of patients with severe meningoencephalitis requiring intensive care.MethodsWe conducted a prospective multicenter international cohort study (2017-2020) in 68 centers across 7 countries. Eligible patients were adults admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with meningoencephalitis, defined by an acute onset of encephalopathy (Glasgow coma scale (GCS) score [Formula: see text] 13), a cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis [Formula: see text] 5 cells/mm3, and at least two of the following criteria: fever, seizures, focal neurological deficit, abnormal neuroimaging, and/or electroencephalogram. The primary endpoint was poor functional outcome at 3 months, defined by a score of three to six on the modified Rankin scale. Multivariable analyses stratified on centers investigated ICU admission variables associated with the primary endpoint.ResultsAmong 599 patients enrolled, 589 (98.3%) completed the 3-month follow-up and were included. Overall, 591 etiologies were identified in those patients which were categorized into five groups: acute bacterial meningitis (n = 247, 41.9%); infectious encephalitis of viral, subacute bacterial, or fungal/parasitic origin (n = 140, 23.7%); autoimmune encephalitis (n = 38, 6.4%); neoplastic/toxic encephalitis (n = 11, 1.9%); and encephalitis of unknown origin (n = 155, 26.2%). Overall, 298 patients (50.5%, 95% CI 46.6-54.6%) had a poor functional outcome, including 152 deaths (25.8%). Variables independently associated with a poor functional outcome were age > 60 years (OR 1.75, 95% CI 1.22-2.51), immunodepression (OR 1.98, 95% CI 1.27-3.08), time between hospital and ICU admission > 1 day (OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.44-2.99), a motor component on the GCS [Formula: see text] 3 (OR 2.23, 95% CI 1.49-3.45), hemiparesis/hemiplegia (OR 2.48, 95% CI 1.47-4.18), respiratory failure (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.05-2.94), and cardiovascular failure (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.07-2.75). In contrast, administration of a third-generation cephalosporin (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.37-0.78) and acyclovir (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.38-0.80) on ICU admission were protective.ConclusionMeningoencephalitis is a severe neurologic syndrome associated with high mortality and disability rates at 3 months. Actionable factors for which improvement could be made include time from hospital to ICU admission, early antimicrobial therapy, and detection of respiratory and cardiovascular complications at admission.© 2023. Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

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