Salmonella is a facultative anaerobic, Gram-negative bacillus belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family, found in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals. The bacteria may spread to environment by infected feces, or transmitted by insects, water and food. Salmonella can cause systemic infections such as meningitis and bacteremia, especially in immunocompromised individuals. Although the incidence of Salmonella meningitis is low, it is more common in children under five years of age.

In this case report, we present a 16-years-old male patient with medulloblastoma infected with Salmonella meningoencephalitis probably due to ventriculoperitoneal shunt. The patient applied to hospital emergency department with complaints of fever, diarrhea and bone pain. Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica was grown in the culture of urine, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and ventriculoperitoneal shunt catheter samples. The diagnosis was established by biochemical tests and agglutination with specific antisera, and confirmed by MALDI-TOF MS. In the antimicrobial susceptibility test performed by disk diffusion method according to EUCAST clinical breakpoints, the isolate was found to be susceptible to ampicillin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, ceftriaxone, cefepime and meropenem, while resistant to ciprofloxacin. The patient received cefepime treatment for two weeks and ceftriaxone for one week and was discharged with recovery after the ventriculoperitoneal shunt was removed.

Meningitis caused by Salmonella is a rare disease. The unique aspect of this case is that Salmonella was found both in urine and ventriculoperitoneal shunt catheter cultures as well as CSF cultures. This case is the first case of meningoencephalitis associated with ventriculoperitoneal shunt, and it was emphasized that early diagnosis and treatment were life-saving for patients.