Cryptococcal meningitis in a tertiary hospital in Pretoria, mortality and risk factors – A retrospective cohort study

AimThis retrospective cohort study analyzes the impact of possible risk factors on the survival chance of patients with cryptococcal meningitis. These factors include the patient’s socio-economic background, age, gender, presenting symptoms, comorbidities, laboratory findings and, in particular, non-adherence versus adherence to therapy.MethodsData were collected from all adult patients admitted to Kalafong Hospital with laboratory confirmed cryptococcal meningitis over a period of 24 months. We analyzed the data by the presentation of descriptive summary statistics, logistic regression was used to assess factors which showed association between outcome of measure and factor. Furthermore, multivariable logistic regression analysis using all the factors that showed significant association in the cross tabulation was applied to determine which factors had an impact on the patients’ mortality risk.ResultsA total of 87 patients were identified. All except one were HIV-positive, of which 55.2% were antiretrovi...