Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Aeromonas in hospital

1986; Elsevier BV; Volume: 7; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0195-6701(86)90052-6

1532-2939

B. Chattopadhyay,

Venomous Animal Envenomation and Studies

Over the last two decades Aeromonas spp. have established a role as significant human pathogens. Aeromonas hydrophila was shown to be hospital-acquired in eight of 27 patients at the Mayo Clinic group of hospitals over a period of 2 years. Nine were isolated from infected wounds following trauma, eight of which were contaminated with soil or water at the time the injury was sustained (Washington, 1972). Similarly in a period of 1 year, in a general hospital, Aerom. hydrophila was isolated from 13 pateints (McCracken & Barkley, 1972). In these two studies Aerom. hydrophila was isolated from post operative wounds, biliary drainage, blood, urine and foot ulcers. There were underlying diseases like leukaemia, aplastic anaemia, reticulum cell sarcoma, hepatic disease or patients were receiving concurrent steroid therapy or had received antibiotic treatment. It is well established that the natural reservoirs of Aeromonas spp. are water and soil (Eddy & Carpenter, 1964; Washington, 1972; Ewing & Hugh, 1974; Schubert, 1974). They have been isolated from rivers (Sanyal et al., 1972; Sanyal, Singh & Sen, 1975; Stephens et al., 1975) and lakes (Rosenthal, Bernhardt & Phillips, 1974). Aeromonas hydrophik is quite often a cause of septicaemia in immunocompromized patients (Wolff, Wiseman & Kitchens, 1980), in particular during their hospitalization (Picard, Arlet & Goullet, 1984). Aeromonas bacteraemia has been described in patients with hepatic cirrhosis with or without peritonitis (Kjems, 1955; Conn, 1964), cirrhosis and pneumonia (von Graevenitz & Mensch, 1968), cirrhosis and gastrointestinal haemorrhage (Washington, 1972; McCracken & Barkley, 1982), leukaemia (Bulger & Sherris, 1966; Dean & Post, 1967; Lopez, Quesada & Saied, 1968; Slotnick, 1970; McCracken & Barkley, 1972; Washington, 1972), sarcoma (Slotnick, 1970) and carcinoma (McCracken & Barkley, 1972). A case of endocarditis due to Aerom. hydrophilu has been described (Davis, Kane & Garagusi, 1978). Reports have documented Aeromonas spp. as the causative agent in bacteraemia, (Pearson, Mitchell & Hughes, 1972; Ellner & McCarthy, 1973; Ketover, Young 8z Armstrong, 1973), osteomyelitis (Lopez, Quesada & Saied, 1968), meningitis (Quadri et al., 1976) peritonitis (Saito & Schick, 1973), and acute and chronic conjunctivitis (Smith, 1980). Aeromonas hydrophila has been cultured consistently from medicinal leeches. As leeches are employed in microsurgery there is a risk of infection when the vascularity of the tissuesis compromised (Whitlock et al., 1983). Postoperative infection due to Akrom. hydrophilu in plastic surgery is documented (Dickinson, Boothman & Hare, 1984).