A COMPARATIVE STUDY TO KNOW THE EFFICACY OF DEXAMETHASONE VERSUS PLACEBO FOR THE BACTERIAL MENINGITIS TREATMENT

Objective: To compare the dexamethasone versus placebo efficacy in reducing hospital mortality in addition to antibiotics used to treat patients with bacterial meningitis. Study Design: A randomized control trial. Place and Duration: In the Medicine Unit 1 of DHQ Hospital Rawalpindi for six months duration from February 2019 to July 2019. Methods: In this study, non-probability purposive sampling technique was used. Informed consent forms were taken from all patients. All patients received a Cefotaxime combination at a dose of 2gramIV for 8 hours and Vancomycin 1g IV for 12 hours. The volunteers were then distributed randomly into 2 groups using the lottery method. In group D, 10 mg of dexamethasone IV was given to patients for 4 days every 6-hourly and group P patients were not treated with dexamethasone with standard regimens. The patients were followed up during the hospital stay due to mortality. The data were classified according to age, sex, disease duration, and TLC at the time of admission to deal with the impact modifier. Chi-square test was performed after stratification. A value of