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Meningitis Following Spinal Anesthesia: 6 Cases in 5 Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Lisa Rubin ,
Hannah Sprecher ,
Ahmed Kabaha ,
Gabriel Weber ,
Nava Teitler  and
Shmuel Rishpon
Lisa Rubin*
Affiliation:
Haifa District Health Office, Haifa, Israel School of Public Health, Faculty of Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
Hannah Sprecher
Affiliation:
Microbiology Laboratory, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel
Ahmed Kabaha
Affiliation:
Haifa District Health Office, Haifa, Israel
Gabriel Weber
Affiliation:
Infectious Diseases Unit, Carmel Medical Center, Haifa, Israel Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Nava Teitler
Affiliation:
HaEmek Medical Center, Afula, Israel
Shmuel Rishpon
Affiliation:
Haifa District Health Office, Haifa, Israel School of Public Health, Faculty of Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
*
Deputy District Health Officer, Haifa District Health Office, Palyam 15 A, Haifa, Israel ([email protected])
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Abstract

We describe 6 cases of meningitis after spinal anesthesia associated with a single anesthesiologist over the course of 5 years. The earliest case occurred in 2000, and the other 5 cases occurred over the course of 14 months in 2004-2005. The case identified in 2000 was culture-positive for Streptococcus salivarius. The other 5 cases were culture-negative for this organism but in 2 cases, the cerebrospinal fluid was found to be positive for bacterial DNA that was identified as belonging to S. salivarius by sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The association with a single anesthesiologist and a single hospital during a relatively short interval, however, lead us to believe that these occurrences are part of a series associated with possible violations of aseptic technique.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 28 , Issue 10 , October 2007 , pp. 1187 - 1190
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2007 

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