Pneumonia and meningitis are the most frequent manifestations of pneumococcal infections. Pneumococcal spinal epidural abscesses have been rarely reported. Spinal epidural abscess by Streptococcus pneumoniae has been diagnosed among the patients with diabetes mellitus, alcoholism, corticosteroid therapy, intravenous drug use, chronic renal failure, AIDS, and history of spinal surgery. Recently, we experienced a case of pneumococcal spinal epidural abscess after spinal trauma. A 36-year-old male patient was admitted with back pain, fever, and paraplegia which occurred 5 days after the trauma. Spine MRI revealed spinal epidural abscess at the level from T2 to T9. He was treated with antimicrobial agents and surgical exploration for spinal epidural abscess. Pus culture grew S. pneumoniae which was susceptible to penicillin. Despite early surgical treatment, neurologic sequelae remained. Considering the high mortality and morbidity of pneumococcal spinal epidural abscess, early diagnosis and aggressive treatment including surgical intervention and antibiotics therapy should be implemented immediately.
Adult ; Alcoholism ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Anti-Infective Agents ; Back Pain ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Early Diagnosis ; Epidural Abscess* ; Fever ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Meningitis ; Mortality ; Paraplegia ; Penicillins ; Pneumococcal Infections ; Pneumonia* ; Spine ; Streptococcus pneumoniae ; Suppuration

Pneumonia and meningitis are the most frequent manifestations of pneumococcal infections. Pneumococcal spinal epidural abscesses have been rarely reported. Spinal epidural abscess by Streptococcus pneumoniae has been diagnosed among the patients with diabetes mellitus, alcoholism, corticosteroid therapy, intravenous drug use, chronic renal failure, AIDS, and history of spinal surgery. Recently, we experienced a case of pneumococcal spinal epidural abscess after spinal trauma. A 36-year-old male patient was admitted with back pain, fever, and paraplegia which occurred 5 days after the trauma. Spine MRI revealed spinal epidural abscess at the level from T2 to T9. He was treated with antimicrobial agents and surgical exploration for spinal epidural abscess. Pus culture grew S. pneumoniae which was susceptible to penicillin. Despite early surgical treatment, neurologic sequelae remained. Considering the high mortality and morbidity of pneumococcal spinal epidural abscess, early diagnosis and aggressive treatment including surgical intervention and antibiotics therapy should be implemented immediately.
Adult ; Alcoholism ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Anti-Infective Agents ; Back Pain ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Early Diagnosis ; Epidural Abscess* ; Fever ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Meningitis ; Mortality ; Paraplegia ; Penicillins ; Pneumococcal Infections ; Pneumonia* ; Spine ; Streptococcus pneumoniae ; Suppuration

BACKGROUND: We wanted to investigate the effect of infectious complications on the outcome of patients who received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), and we determined the risk factors for predicting infectious complication and the mortality in allogeneic HSCT recipients. METHODS: We enrolled all the patients who underwent allogeneic HSCT at Samsung Medical Center from February 1996 to October 2003. RESULTS: A total of 139 patients were enrolled. A total of 450 infectious episodes were observed in 131 allogeneic recipients (90.8%). Infectious complications occurred in the allogeneic recipients [3.243.00 episodes/patient]. Microbiologically documented infection (MDI), clinically documented infection (CDI), and unknown fever (UF) accounted for 41.6%, 34.0% and 24.4%, respectively, of the total infections. Pneumonia (15.1%) was the most common infection. Among the 187 MDIs, bacterial infection, viral infection and fungal infection accounted for 50.3%, 39.6%, and 7.5%, respectively. Twelve of 24 deaths in the late post-transplantation period were related with infection. The statistically significant risk factors for infection related to mortality, by multivariate analysis, were the underlying disease risk, the duration of neutropenia, the failure of stem cell engraftment, acute GVHD, MDI, UF, the number of infectious episodes, bacteremia, fungemia, pneumonia, genitourinary tract infections, S. aureus, E. coli, Pseudomonas spp., Aspergillus spp., Non-albicans candida and CMV diseases. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of fungal infections was still low in our institute, even though prophylaxis for fungal infections was not applied, except for gargling with nystatin. In addition, most of them were non-albican Candida and Aspergillus species. Therefore, routine fluconazole prophylaxis may not be needed in our institute.
Aspergillus ; Bacteremia ; Bacterial Infections ; Candida ; Fever ; Fluconazole ; Fungemia ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Mortality ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neutropenia ; Nystatin ; Pneumonia ; Pseudomonas ; Risk Factors ; Stem Cells

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Antibiotic prophylaxis of infective endocarditis is required before high-risk procedures in patient with high-risk heart diseases. Although guidelines for the prevention of infective endocarditis were proposed by the American Heart Association in 1997, compliance to these recommendations has not been evaluated in Korea. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective, multicentered study in 8 Korean university hospitals. Patients with high-risk heart diseases, having undergone invasive dental procedures between Jan. 1, 2000 and Dec. 31, 2003, were enrolled. The medical and dental records of the patients were reviewed to evaluate whether the prophylaxis had been appropriate. RESULTS: Of the initial 4,912 patients, 184 that had been treated with invasive dental procedures (255 total episodes, mean 1.4/patient) were evaluated. The most common high-risk heart disease was a prosthetic heart valve (233 procedures), followed by a previous history of infective endocarditis (22 procedures), cyanotic heart diseases (5 procedures) and systemic pulmonic venous shunts (2 procedures). Antibiotic prophylaxis was performed in 231 procedures (90.8%). Amoxicillin was the most common antibiotic used for prophylaxis (88.6%); however, the adequate dosage (2 gm) was administered in only 56% of these cases. Therefore, the appropriate prophylaxis, according to the AHA recommendations, was performed in only 14.1% (36 procedures). The mean duration of prophylaxis and number of antibiotic doses were 2.40 days (2.40+/-2.44) and 7.97 doses (7.97+/-7.18), respectively. A previous history of infective endocarditis (p=0.03) and dental extraction (p<0.01) resulted in a longer duration of prophylaxis. CONCLUSION: Only 14.1% of the high risk group procedures were given appropriate antibiotic prophylaxis according to the AHA recommendations. These data suggest that protocol-based education of both doctors and patients is required for appropriate antimicrobial therapy during high-risk procedures for the prevention of infective endocarditis in patients with high-risk heart disease.
American Heart Association ; Amoxicillin ; Antibiotic Prophylaxis ; Compliance ; Dental Records ; Education ; Endocarditis* ; Heart Diseases ; Heart Valves ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Korea ; Retrospective Studies