Sepsis, Helicoid Bacteremia, and Pneumatosis Intestinalis

Spirochetal or helical configurations are unusual among human pathogens. The number of organisms that will grow in standard blood culture media and stain well with Gram stain is even less common. This is a fatal case of sepsis with pneumatosis intestinalis due to the anaerobic spiral-formed pathogen Anaerobiospirillum succiniciproducens. It is followed by a brief discussion of organisms to consider when the laboratory calls to report “a spirochete is growing in the blood culture” along with a caveat in choosing antimicrobial therapy when A. succiniciproducens is a possibility. Human pathogens configured as helixes or spirals are comprised by a limited number of genera. Furthermore, most of the pathogens reported in the clinical literature will not stain with Gram stain. This is a case of one such pathogen, which may be included in the differential diagnosis of the prudent infectious disease specialist when told by the microbiology laboratory, “we see spirochetes on the gram stain of the blood culture.”
Source: Infectious Diseases in Clinical Practice - Category: Infectious Diseases Tags: Case Reports Source Type: research