Bacterial meningitis in adults: a retrospective study among 148 patients in an 8-year period in a university hospital, Finland.

The number of cases with nosocomial BM was surprisingly high and should be further investigated. The usage of pre-diagnostic antibiotics was also quite high. Headache was associated with unfavorable outcome. The frequency of unfavorable outcome of BM was 40.5%, although mortality in our patients was lower than in most previous studies.