The following two cases of mumps associated with meningitis are reported because they show several unusual features: 1. Meningitis is an uncommon complication of mumps; 2. Mumps associated with meningitis without evident involvement of the salivary glands is rare. 3. This complication occurred in identical twins.
The occurrence of meningitis in mumps seems to be an infrequent complication, but varies in different epidemics. Synge1 quoted Dopter, who reported 1705 cases of mumps, with 9, or 0.52 per cent, showing signs of meningeal irritation, such as bradycardia, headache, rigidity of the neck and vomiting. He also quoted Roux, whose series showed typical meningitis as a complication of mumps in 1 per cent of the cases. Wollstein2 stated that Larkin saw 2 cases of meningitis among 2,400 patients with mumps, while Harlow Brooks3 wrote that meningitis did not occur at all among 1,059 men in the Camp Upton epidemic.