Link to Pubmed [PMID] – 28314470
Link to DOI – S0399-077X(17)30086-010.1016/j.medmal.2017.02.004
Med Mal Infect 2017 May; 47(3): 236-251
The etiological diagnosis of infectious encephalitis is often not established 48hours after onset. We aimed to review existing literature data before providing management guidelines.We performed a literature search on PubMed using filters such as “since 01/01/2000”, “human”, “adults”, “English or French”, and “clinical trial/review/guidelines”. We also used the Mesh search terms “encephalitis/therapy” and “encephalitis/diagnosis”.With Mesh search terms “encephalitis/therapy” and “encephalitis/diagnosis”, we retrieved 223 and 258 articles, respectively. With search terms “encephalitis and corticosteroid”, we identified 38 articles, and with “encephalitis and doxycycline” without the above-mentioned filters we identified 85 articles. A total of 210 articles were included in the analysis.Etiological investigations must focus on recent travels, animal exposures, age, immunodeficiency, neurological damage characteristics, and potential extra-neurological signs. The interest of a diagnosis of encephalitis for which there is no specific treatment is also to discontinue any empirical treatments initially prescribed. Physicians must consider and search for autoimmune encephalitis.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28314470