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Enterococcal infections and bacteremia incidence have been increasing over the past decades, with enterococcal endocarditis representing 10% of all cases of infective endocarditis (1). This makes it the third most common organism implicated in IE, after Staphylococcus and streptococcus, and it is more prevalent in patients who are not drug abusers. Enterococcal bacteremia by itself
Blood cultures are the gold standard for evaluating patients with suspected bacteremia. They are an indispensable tool in evaluating diseases such as infective endocarditis, septic shock, meningitis, and pneumonia. By far, it is relatively simple to interpret the results (its either positive or negative) though whether it represents a clinically relevant entity or contamination is
Staphylococcus Aureus is a tough disease to treat, but luckily for MSSA we have pretty good antibiotics to treat this beast. The choice is usually between cefazolin, a first-generation cephalosporin, and Nafcillin, an anti-staphylococcal penicillin. My experience has been that cefazolin is usually the go to antibiotic for MSSA bacteremia, with nafcillin having a niche
Gram negative bacteremia tends to complicate a variety of infections, including urinary tract infections/pyelonephritis, and intra-abdominal infections. Further, a lot of these patients tend to have severe presentations leading to perhaps overtreatment with IV antibiotic therapy. Until recently, there had been little data to guide uncomplicated gram negative rod bacteremia but there has been a
Pneumococcus, or Streptococcal pneumoniae, is an encapsulated gram positive organism. SO that is not a surprise to most people reading this. Here is a diagram of the capsule: Strep pneumo joins other encapsulated organisms such as Haemophilus influenza and Nisseria meningiditis in causing havoc in certain immunodeficiency states. These include anything that affect the opsonization
The rate of invasive group B streptococcal infection has been rising for the past few years. Originally described in neonates and pregnant woman, the incidence of invasive disease has risen significantly in the non-pregnant adults. Early studies (1, 2) from Atlanta in the early 90s found that in non-pregnant adults, bacteremia without a focus and
This is a retrospective, observational cohort study from Detroit evaluating the frequency of IV to PO switch and the population for which this is use, as well as to figure out the factors associated with failure. They recruited 492 patients with MRSA bacteremia (basically anyone with the exception of polymicrobial bacteremia and those with wither
Dr. Germophile 