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Case Report | Open Access
Bacteremia Caused by Eggerthella lenta in an Elderly Man with a Gastrointestinal Malignancy: A Case Report
Davie Wong
,1 Fred Aoki,2 and Ethan Rubinstein21Internal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
2Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Abstract
Eggerthella lenta is an anaerobic, Gram-positive bacillus commonly found in the human digestive tract. Occasionally, it can cause life-threatening infections. Bacteremia due to this organism is always clinically significant and is associated with gastrointestinal diseases and states of immune suppression. The authors report a case involving an elderly man with a newly diagnosed gastrointestinal malignancy who developed bacteremia caused by E lenta, treated successfully using empirical therapy with vancomycin and piperacillin-tazobactam, followed by directed therapy with metronidazole once the identity and antibiotic susceptibility of the organism was established. The present case reinforces the connection between E lenta bacteremia with gastrointestinal malignancy and highlights the importance of searching for a source of bacteremia due to this organism.
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Hindawi Publishing Corporation. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
