Outcome and Related Factors for Prognosis Following Severe Viral Encephalitis in Children

Objective To evaluate the prognosis of severe viral encephalitis(SVE)in children,and to investigate the related prognostic factors for SVE. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 56 SVE inpatient clinical data from pediatric wards of China Medical University Affiliated Shengjing Hospital,covering from Jan.2009 to Aug.2010.These children were divided into 2 groups(incurable group and curable group) and followed up at least 4 months after discharging from the hospital.Their prognosis was valued with the Liverpool Outcome Score.The data were processed by SPSS 13.0 saftware,t test and Binary Logistic regression were used to analyze the correlation between clinical data and the prognosis in the 2 groups. Results Thirty-five percent(19/54 cases) of children with SVE died or had severe neurological sequelae,of which 7 cases(13%) died during hospitalization,3 cases(6%) died during follow-up,9 cases(17%) had severe sequelae,7 cases(13%) had mild sequelae and 5 cases(9%) had minor sequelae.The statistically significant factors for SVE children with poor prognosis were moderately abnormal electroencephalogram,convulsive status,long-time fever,stress hyperglycemia,and head MRI lesions involving more than two or lesions involving the infratentorial(Pa0.05),while cerebrospinal fluid white blood cell count,cerebrospinal fluid protein,paralysis,unconsciousness,multiple organ injury,hypokalemia,hyponatremia had nothing to do with poor prognosis in children with SVE. Conclusions The SVE is a serious threaten to quality of children′s life.Some of the symptoms are associated with convulsive status,stress hyperglycemia,long-time fever,moderately abnormal electroencephalogram and head MRI lesions involving more than two or lesions involving the infratentorial may be risk factors for SVE affecting the prognosis of children.