Lumbar Puncture as a Factor in the Causation of Meningitis

Pyogenic meningitis in chronic gastroenteritis and marasmus.

“…Previous authors have reported cases in which initial CSF cell counts and biochemistry may be normal and the existence of bacterial meningitis only becomes evident upon positive bacterial culture from the CSF in the following 24 hours (Moore and Ross, 1973). Sometimes initial lumbar puncture may yield completely normal CSF which is sterile on culture, but a positive blood culture is followed by the finding of purulent CSF at some stage in the next 48 hours (Wegeforth and Latham, 1919;Fisher et al, 1975). The shortest time interval between the lumbar punctures in our series was 3 days (Case 2).…”

Before the Vaccines: Medical Treatments of Acute Paralysis in the 1916 New York Epidemic of Poliomyelitis

“…The use of LP as a diagnostic tool for bacterial meningitis was questioned by two army doctors in 1919 [ 14 ]. They found that patients who were punctured before intravenous serum therapy, developed meningitis the following day, whereas those who were given serum first did not.…”

“…The taking of CSF by lumbar puncture from suspected cases of poliomyelitis was, however, a controversial technique in the early 1950's. Two French experts, Debre and Thieffry, advocated routine LP and examination of the CSF for the diagnosis of acute and non-paralytic polio and to differentiate polio from Guillain-Barre syndrome [ 14 ]. Mollaret, however, compared the progress of patients who received lumbar punctures after the onset of paralysis with those without paralysis [ 15 ].…”