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BACTEROIDES SEPTICEMIA IN OLDER PATIENTS *
Author(s) -
ELLNER PAUL D.,
WASILAUSKAS BENEDICT L.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1971.tb05369.x
Subject(s) - bacteroides , medicine , sepsis , chloramphenicol , antibiotics , kanamycin , blood culture , bacteremia , bacteroides fragilis , microbiology and biotechnology , gastroenterology , bacteria , biology , genetics
A bstract : Thirty‐seven cases of Bacteroides septicemia are documented. Eighteen of these patients were age 45 or older; the mean age was 65 years. Fourteen of these older patients were males, most of whom had gastrointestinal disease. Seven of the 18 patients died as a result of their infection. The predominant species was B. funduliformis (Sphaerophorus necrophorus ). Antibiotic susceptibility testing indicated that all strains were resistant to kanamycin and, with one exception, were sensitive to chloramphenicol. Although clinically indistinguishable from septicemia due to other Gram‐negative organisms, a useful clue to Bacteroides sepsis was the delayed appearance of growth in blood cultures. Bacteroides should be considered as a possible etiologic agent in older patients with sepsis who have failed to respond to conventional treatment and whose blood cultures show no growth within forty‐eight hours.