Nosocomial postneurosurgical Acinetobacter baumannii meningitis: a retrospective study of six cases admitted to Hamad General Hospital, Qatar.

This article reports six cases of nosocomial Acinetobacter baumannii meningitis in patients who had undergone neurosurgical procedures with placing of external ventricular drains. The mean time between surgery and onset of infection was 27 days [standard deviation (SD) 14] Multi-drug resistance was observed in three cases (50%) and carbapenem resistance was noted in two cases (33%). All patients had received empirical antibiotics and these were appropriate in five cases (83%). The mean duration of antimicrobial treatment was 12.5 (SD 2.4) days. Two of the six patients (33%) died in hospital.