Bacillus Cereus Catheter-Related Bacteremia in a Patient Diagnosed with Neuroblastoma

Bacillus species can be found in air, water, soil, feces, and particularly in the normal flora of patients with a prolonged length of hospitalization. Therefore, isolation of these microorganisms from clinical samples is a common condition and usually regarded as contaminants. Previously, Bacillus cereus has been rarely associated with infections, but in the last few years, it has been reported with increasing frequency as the bacterial pathogen in patients with intravenous drug abuse, trauma, immunodeficiency syndrome, immunosuppressed patients with a history of underlying malignancy and granulocytopenia. In this study, we present a 3-months-old baby girl who was presented to a private health center with a complaint of not sucking well enough. After clinical examination she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma stage 4 S, metastasis was detected in the liver and bone marrow and surrenalectomy and 14 cures of chemotherapy were applied to the patient. Patient was discharged from the hospital with a permanent tunneled catheter, but she returned to the pediatric emergency department with high fever. After laboratory tests she was diagnosed with febrile neutropenia and ceftazidime and amikacin treatment was started. Ceftazidime treatment was stopped after the isolation of B. cereus from peripheral and catheter blood cultures of the patient and teicoplanin treatment was started. Permanent tunneled catheter was removed under anesthesia, and this suggested the case as a catheter-originated bacteremia after reducing fever of the patient. As a result, we suggest that B. cereus isolation in blood cultures could not everytime mean contamination, and B. cereus may cause catheter-related infections in immunosuppressed patients. (JAREM 2015; 5: 75-7)