Neurological diseases >>>> Meningeal syndrome

Meningeal syndrome.

Meningeal syndrome is a complex of symptoms characteristic of diseases associated with inflammation of the lining of the brain. Inflammation of the meninges may be accompanied by edema, impaired cerebrospinal fluid outflow, compression of the meninges, and intoxication. Such effects on the meninges cause certain reactions from the nervous system and pain.

The earliest symptom indicating the possible development of inflammatory processes in the meninges is headache. Headache is of varying intensity (up to painful and difficult to bear), different localization and can cause a feeling of fullness and urge to vomit. Headache may be worse when exposed to noise, odors, or bright light, when you change your body position, or when you tilt or turn your head.

The second characteristic sign of meningeal syndrome is a change in the state of skeletal muscles - the so-called tonic muscle tension. There are several ways to check and confirm tonic muscle tension in different parts of the body:

Regularity of the muscles of the occipital region - tension and resistance of the muscles of the occiput is felt when the head is tilted with the chin to the sternum;
Kernig symptom - the leg, previously bent at the knee and hip joint, does not fully extend;
The upper symptom of Brudzinsky is a passive adduction of the head to the sternum in a person lying in a relaxed state; the legs in the knee and hip joints are reflexively bent;
The lower symptom of Brudzinsky is that when one leg is bent in the knee and hip joint, the second leg in a relaxed lying person is involuntarily bent.

There are a number of cerebral symptoms characteristic of meningeal syndrome:

сonvulsions,
nervous tics,
Loss of hearing and / or smell,
Stunned state,
Increased irritability.

When moving the spread of inflammatory processes from the membranes to the substance of the brain or spinal cord, tissue sensitivity disorders, paresis and paralysis, oculomotor disorders, and facial neuralgia can be observed .

Meningeal syndrome is observed in diseases: purulent meningitis, serous meningitis, brain trauma, encephalitis, arachnoiditis, brain abscess, cerebral edema, intracerebral or subarachnoid bleeding, and others.