Bacteroides bacteriaemia in surgical patients

✍ Scribed by Iain Mackenzie; Adrian Litton

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1974
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 276 KB
• Volume: 61
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0007-1323
• DOI: 10.1002/bjs.1800610408

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

In a general surgical unit, during a 6-year period between June, 1967, and May, 1973, anaerobic bacteriaemia was noted in 23 patients, of whom 4 had Gram-positive clostridial bacteriaemia. Nineteen patients had Gram-negative Bacteroides species in their blood. In these patients the infection appeared to have come from bacteria that were normal commensals of the patients' gastro-intestinal tracts. The use of antibiotics to which Bacteroides species were resistant may have suppressed more invasive bacteria, allowing the selective proliferation of bacteroides.