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Lactobacillus Species as a Cause of Ventilator‐Associated Pneumonia in a Critically Ill Trauma Patient
Author(s) -
Wood G. Christopher,
Boucher Bradley A.,
Croce Martin A.,
Fabian Timothy C.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
pharmacotherapy: the journal of human pharmacology and drug therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.227
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1875-9114
pISSN - 0277-0008
DOI - 10.1592/phco.22.13.1180.33530
Subject(s) - critically ill , pneumonia , medicine , intensive care medicine , genitourinary system , ventilator associated pneumonia , disease , lactobacillus , biology , bacteria , genetics
Lactobacillus species are ubiquitous inhabitants of the human gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts and rarely cause infections. Pneumonia caused by Lactobacillus has been reported only in immunocompromised patients and in one patient with structural lung disease. A 39–year‐old, immunocompetent, critically ill woman developed ventilator‐associated pneumonia, which was found to be caused by Lactobacillus . To our knowledge, this is the first such report. The infection was treated successfully with 14 days of intravenous vancomycin. Based on this case, Lactobacillus should be considered a possible cause of ventilator‐associated pneumonia in immunocompetent, critically ill patients.