Evidence-based On-call

Meningitis

Therapy

Give steroids to patients with TB meningitis on chemotherapy ^a

Why?

Patients with tuberculous meningitis who receive steroids and TB chemotherapy compared with TB chemotherapy alone are less likely to die or disabling residual deficits. ^a

Steroids reduce death and disability in patients with tuberculous meningitis.

Patient	Treatment	Comparison	Outcome	CER	OR (95% CI)	NNT (95% CI)
tuberculous meningitis ^a	steroids and TB chemotherapy	TB chemotherapy	death or disabling residual deficits at 6 months	46%	0.43 (0.23 to 0.81)	5 (3 to 19)