FRIEDLAENDER'S BACILLUS MENINGITIS SECONDARY TO OTITIS MEDIA: A Report of a Case with Recovery and a Review of the Literature

THE following material is to review all the available cases of Friedländer bacillus meningitis secondary to otitis media. One case with recovery will be reported as the second to be recorded in the literature. Therapeutic methods used up to the present time will be summarized.

BACTERIOLOGY

Friedländer originally described the bacillus now commonly known as Friedländer's bacillus, in 1883, as the causative agent of pneumonia. Today the incidence of Friedländer's bacillus as an etiologic agent of primary pneumonia is known to be low. Since its discovery the organism has been known as Bacterium pneumoniae, Bacterium Friedländeri, Bacillus mucosus capsulatus, Encapsulatus pneumoniae and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Current texts (Jordan and Burrows,¹Zinsser²and Julianelle³) describe the bacillus as a short, plump rod subject to variations in size. It is a nonmotile, non-spore-forming, unflagellated, facultative anaerobe whose optimum temperature is 37.0 C. A well developed capsule surrounds the bacillus, and two or more