Acute pediatric encephalitis: etiology, course, and outcome of a 12-year single-center immunocompetent cohort.

Herpes virus and anti-NMDAR encephalitis are the most frequent etiologies within our cohort. Clinical onset and course are extremely variable. Since early immunomodulatory treatment was associated with a better functional outcome, our data confirm that a timely diagnostic classification in definite, probable, or possible autoimmune encephalitis can help the clinician in a successful therapeutic approach.