Meningeal symptoms (meningeal signs) - a concept that includes subjective disorders and objective symptoms that can be determined during examination of the patient.
A cardiac meningeal symptom is a headache, which is characterized by high intensity (so intense that patients can clutch their heads, moan and even scream in pain), diffuseness (that is, the entire area of the head hurts) and a feeling that the head is bursting.
Patients suffering from meningeal symptoms constantly feel pressure on their ears, eyes and neck. In addition, pain in the head can be accompanied by unpleasant sensations in the neck, spine. It also intensifies in bright light, loud sound, or simply a change in the position of the human body.
If the membranes of the spinal cord are mainly affected , the pain may not be so severe. It almost disappears after a person accepts a loop duaretic.
Meningeal symptoms are most often characterized by the fact that the headache is accompanied by vomiting and nausea. Moreover, vomiting is in no way associated with food intake. It arises suddenly. In addition to too much sensitivity to photo and sound stimuli, there is also pronounced hyperesthesia of the skin. Painful sensations can occur during palpation, stroking the shoulders, hips and abdomen. In some cases, such symptoms, especially in combination with vomiting and nausea, deceptively mimic the picture of an acute abdomen.
The most demonstrative of the objective symptoms of meningeal syndrome include: lower and upper Brudzinsky symptoms, stiff neck muscles and Kerning symptoms.
Rigidity can be checked by placing a person on his back and bending his head with closed jaws. When the syndrome is present, the patient cannot reach the chest with his chin. This is due to the fact that increased muscle tone in the extensor muscles of the head.
Meningeal symptoms can have varying degrees of severity: mild, in which case the patient is not enough to touch the chest only one or two centimeters. Moderate meningeal symptoms when the patient's chin does not reach the sternum by 3-5 centimeters. With a pronounced symptom, the head does not leave the vertical position at all and throws itself back.
It is necessary to distinguish between muscle stiffness and the radicular symptom of Neri. With the latter, it is either impossible to bend your head at all, or it is very difficult due to the fact that severe pain occurs. It is worth noting that rigidity can be combined with a Neri symptom. In addition, difficulties with bending the head can be associated with the fact that the lesion of the cervical spine began.
There are several degrees of severity of meningeal symptoms - from fairly minor to pronounced. When the disease has reached late terms, and adequate treatment has not been carried out, patients take the pose that is characteristic of the disease: lying on its side, with its head thrown back and legs pressed to the stomach. She is also called the pose of a dog.
The patient can determine all meningeal symptoms:
- complete syndrome;
- when a part of characteristic symptoms is absent;
- an incomplete syndrome that occurs with viral serous meningitis.
There is also such a thing as pseudomeningeal syndrome. It occurs due to reasons that impede or exclude movement in the neck, knees, thereby leading to the occurrence of meningeal symptoms (Kernig symptom and stiff neck muscles).
Most often, it is due to the fact that muscle tone (parkinsonism), paratonia or orthopedic pathologies such as spondylarthrosis and spondylosis increase. A strong pain syndrome is always present.