Hemorrhagic stroke as a complication of bacterial meningitis in adults: report of three cases and review.

We describe three adults who had hemorrhagic strokes during the acute phase of bacterial meningitis (BM). We also report the results of a literature review and a review of the charts of 296 adults treated at our hospital for acute BM. The diagnosis of hemorrhagic stroke was made based on the results of cerebral computed tomography (CT) for two of 92 patients with BM who had CT performed and by means of lumbar puncture and a postmortem study in one other case. Two patients died of cerebral bleeding. Although the frequency of hemorrhagic stroke was only 2.1% among adults with acute BM, it is a major determinant of prognosis for such patients.