Anaerobic Infections: July 2016

Infections caused by anaerobic bacteria are common, and may be serious and life-threatening. Anaerobes predominant in the bacterial flora of normal human skin and mucous membranes, and are a common cause of bacterial infections of endogenous origin. Infections due to anaerobes can evolve all body systems and sites. The predominate ones include: abdominal, pelvic, respiratory, and skin and soft tissues infections. Because of their fastidious nature, they are difficult to isolate and are often overlooked. Failure to direct therapy against these organisms often leads to clinical failures. Their isolation requires appropriate methods of collection, transportation and cultivation of specimens. Treatment of anaerobic bacterial infection is complicated by the slow growth of these organisms, which makes diagnosis in the laboratory only possible after several days, by their often polymicrobial nature and by the growing resistance of anaerobic bacteria to antimicrobial agents.

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Sunday, July 24, 2016

Impact of Inappropriate Therapy on Mortality associated with Anaerobic Bacteremia.

Kim et al. analyzed the incidence and risk factors related to mortality and assess clinical outcomes of anaerobic bacteremia during 2012 in Yonsei University Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

A total of 70 anaerobic bacteria were isolated from blood of 70 bacteremia patients. The history of cardiovascular disease as host's risk factor was statistically significant. The incidence of anaerobic bacteremia in was 2.3% per 100 positive blood culture patients, and the mortality rate in patients with clinically significant anaerobic bacteremia was 21.4%. anaerobic bacteremia was frequently noted in patients with malignancy.

The survival rate of bacteremia was significantly worse in patients who had inappropriate therapy compared with those underwent appropriate therapy. The most frequently isolated organism was Bacteroides fragilis (32 isolates, 46%), Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (10, 14%), and non-perfringens Clostridium (7, 10%).