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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, April 2001, p. 1604-1607, Vol. 39, No. 4
Departments of Internal
Medicine,1 Clinical Pathology (Section
of Clinical Microbiology),2 and
Infectious Diseases,3 Cleveland Clinic
Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio 44195
Received 10 August 2000/Returned for modification 27 November
2000/Accepted 26 January 2001
Infection with Lactobacillus is rare, and only a
handful of species have been identified as being clinically
significant: Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus rhamnosus,
and Lactobacillus leichmannii. The literature contains one
case report of bacteremia caused by Weissella confusa
(basonym: Lactobacillus confusus), but the clinical
significance of the infection was unclear. We describe a case of
W. confusa bacteremia in a 46-year-old man with a history
of abdominal aortic dissection and repair. This procedure was
complicated by gut ischemia, which necessitated massive small bowel
resection. He subsequently developed short-bowel syndrome, which
required him to have total parenteral nutrition. He later developed an
Enterococcus faecalis aortic valve endocarditis that
required a coronary artery bypass graft and aortic root replacement with homograft and 6 weeks of intravenous ampicillin and gentamicin. Three months prior to his most recent admission, he was diagnosed with
Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteremia and candidemia. At the
present admission, he had fever (Tmax,
39.5°C) and chills of 2 days' duration and was admitted to the
intensive care unit because of hemodynamic instability. Blood cultures
grew K. pneumoniae and W. confusa in four of
four blood culture bottles (both aerobe and anaerobe bottles). Imaging
studies failed to find any foci of infection. A transesophageal
echocardiogram revealed no vegetations. A culture of the patient's
Hickman catheter tip was negative. The patient was treated with
piperacillin-tazobactam and gentamicin. His condition improved, and he
was discharged home, where he completed 4 weeks of
piperacillin-tazobactam therapy. Lactobacillemia seldom results in
mortality; however, it may be a marker of a serious underlying disease.
It is usually seen in patients who have a complex medical history or in
patients who receive multiple antibiotics. Lactobacillus spp. are generally associated with polymicrobial infections, and when
isolated from the blood, they need to be considered possible pathogens.
The presence of a vancomycin-resistant, gram-positive coccobacilli on a
blood culture should alert clinicians to the possibility of bacteremia
caused by W. confusa or other small gram-positive rods.
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.4.1604-1607.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Weissella confusa (Basonym:
Lactobacillus confusus) Bacteremia: a Case
Report
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Cleveland Clinic
Foundation, 9500 Euclid Ave., Desk L-40, Cleveland, OH 44195. Phone: (216) 444-5990. Fax: (216) 445-6984. E-mail: hallg{at}ccf.org.
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