What is acute encephalitis? Do you know the real cause of the disease?

The human brain rarely gets sick under normal circumstances. Except for fever caused by a cold, it is generally not prone to inflammation. However, acute meningitis will not only cause infection of the nervous system to the human brain, but will also cause the patient to have a decrease in resistance and immunity. Severe cases will cause multiple complications. After the onset of acute encephalitis, the most typical symptoms of patients are fever and headache, as well as persistent vomiting. Therefore, we need to know what acute meningitis is and how to judge it.

What is acute meningitis

In fact, this concept, first of all, what is acute, what is chronic, and what is subacute, is a classification of the course of the disease, or the classification of the onset of the disease. Acute meningitis generally refers to meningitis that occurs within seven days. If the process occurs within seven days and can develop to its peak, we call it acute meningitis.

There is another type of meningitis that lasts for about seven days to three weeks, which is called subacute meningitis, and one that lasts for more than one month is called chronic meningitis. So this is a classification of the course of the disease. There are many causes of acute meningitis, including viruses, tuberculosis, and cryptococcus. They can all occur. It's just that compared with chronic meningitis, the course of the disease may be more rapid.

Generally speaking, most patients with acute meningitis are mainly infected, while patients with chronic meningitis may be more likely to have non-infectious factors, such as meningitis, some meningitis diseases, and tumors, which can cause similar to carcinomatous meningitis.

So there are some autoimmune meningitis. In this case, the course of the disease may be relatively late. Therefore, we must pay great attention to acute meningitis, especially acute meningitis, which has a rapid onset and is more infection-based. There are many treatments, so we must see a doctor as soon as possible when meningitis is suspected clinically.

Before the typical symptoms of acute meningitis, namely fever, headache, stiff neck and vomiting, appear, there is often a prodromal respiratory infection or sore throat. Adults can become critically ill within 24 hours, and children may progress even faster. In older children and adults, consciousness progresses from irritability, confusion, stupor, to coma. Seizures and cranial neuropathies may occur. Dehydration often occurs, and vascular collapse may lead to shock and Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome, particularly with meningococcal sepsis. Hemiparesis and other focal disorders may occur due to cerebral infarction, but these focal disorders are relatively rare in the early stages of the disease and should be suspected in the presence of brain abscess, bacterial endocarditis with focal ischemia caused by bacterial embolism, or Todd palsy after an epileptic seizure.

In infants 3 months to 2 years, signs and symptoms are less predictable. Fever, vomiting, irritability, seizures, high-pitched crying, and a bulging or tense fontanelle are common; nuchal stiffness may be absent. In infants and young children, subdural effusion may develop after a few days, with classic signs being seizures, persistent fever, and increased head circumference. Through coronal suture puncture, subdural fluid with high protein content can be obtained.