The Management of Encephalitis: Clinical Practice Guidelines by the Infectious Diseases Society of America

Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with encephalitis were prepared by an Expert Panel of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The guidelines are intended for use by health care providers who care for patients with encephalitis. The guideline includes data on the epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment of many viral, bacterial, fungal, protozoal, and helminthic etiologies of encephalitis and provides information on when specific etiologic agents should be considered in individual patients with encephalitis. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Encephalitis is defined by the presence of an inflam-matory process of the brain in association with clinical evidence of neurologic dysfunction. Of the pathogens reported to cause encephalitis, the majority are viruses. However, despite extensive testing, the etiology of en-cephalitis remains unknown in most patients. Another major challenge for patients with encephalitis is to de-termine the relevance of an infectious agent identified outside of the CNS; these agents may play a role in the neurologic manifestations of illness but not necessarily by directly invading the CNS. In addition, it is impor-tant to distinguish between infectious encephalitis and postinfectious or postimmunization encephalitis or en