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# Clinical Manifestations of Meningitis This account does not allow editing on you… Slide 10 of 36 ## Clinical Manifestations - Headache and fever are the initial symptoms - Headache is usually either steady or throbbing, and very severe as a result of meningeal irritation. - Meninges irritation...

# Clinical Manifestations of Meningitis This account does not allow editing on you… Slide 10 of 36 ## Clinical Manifestations - Headache and fever are the initial symptoms - Headache is usually either steady or throbbing, and very severe as a result of meningeal irritation. - Meninges irritation results in: - **Nuchal rigidity:** (stiff neck) is an early sign - **Positive Kernig's sign:** When lying with thigh flexed on abdomen, patient cannot completely extend leg - **Positive Brudzinski's sign:** Flexing patient's neck produces flexion of the knees and hips. Passive flexion of the lower extremity of one side produces similar movement for the opposite extremity ## Meningitis - Kernigs - Brudzinski Sign ### Kernig sign - Illustrated by a patient lying on their back with the knee flexed and the thigh flexed on their abdomen, the patient cannot completely extend the leg. ### Brudzinski sign - Illustrated by a patient lying supine, when the neck is flexed, there is involuntary hip and knee flexion ## Clinical Manifestations (cont.) - **Photophobia:** (extreme sensitivity to light) is common. - **Rash:** Ranges from petechial rash with purpuric lesions to large areas of ecchymosis - **Disorientation and memory impairment** - Behavioral manifestations - As the illness progresses: - Lethargy, unresponsiveness, and coma may develop - **Seizures:** The result of areas of irritability in the brain. - ICP increases secondary to diffuse brain swelling or hydrocephalus; initial signs of increased ICP.