Relapsed Bacterial Meningitis in an Adolescent Patient with Aberrant Patent Foramen Caecum

Bacterial meningitis is a serious life-threatening condition. Recurrent meningitis is defined as two independent episodes of meningitis that are separated by a period of convalescence and full recovery. Therefore, true recurrence results from a re-infection with the same or a different bacterial organism. In contrast, recrudescence and relapsed meningitis (RBM) represent persistence of the initial infection resulting from treatment failure. Both are uncommon and could be due to anatomic anomalies of the skull, traumatic head injury with secondary CSF fistula, complement deficiency or spread from a para meningeal infection.