Internal Medicine: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Ochrobactrum Anthropi Bacteraemia: Report of Six Cases and Review of the Literature

Alicia Hernández-Torres, Joaquín Ruiz Gómez, Elisa García-Vázquez and Joaquín Gómez-Gómez

Background: Ochrobactrum anthropi is an emerging opportunistic pathogen classically considered of low virulence. The purpose of this study is to describe the most recent cases of O. anthropi bacteraemia in our hospital, along with a brief review of the literature.
Methods: we have reviewed the cases of O. anthropi registered in the database of our hospital during the last 3 years. Ochrobactrum spp. was identified by the macroscopic appearance and growth characteristics; definitive identification was performed by the commercial system Vitek-2 (Biomerieux, France).
Results: We report 6 cases of bacteraemia secondary to O. anthropi infection, 5 of them occurring in
immunocompromised patients; the last one was considered to be contaminated due to the lack of risk factors andthe clinical improvement without an effective treatment. Two out of 6 patients had catheter-related infection, the most common infection associated to this organism. Another patient had an O. anthropi-related biliary sepsis. Probably the most relevant cases are patients number 1 and patient number 4, suffering from a pneumonia and a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS)-related infection respectively, two uncommon infections caused by this
bacterium. Clinical response was satisfactory in all cases, except in case number 4, probably in relation to the maintenance of the TIPS.

Conclusion: severe immunosuppression and association with an indwelling medical device are the main factors associated with most cases of O. anthropi bacteraemia. The most important point in the treatment is the removal of the infected device, in addition to an appropriate antibiotic treatment.