SERIOUS INFECTIONS CAUSED BY MULTIPLY-RESISTANT ENTEROCOCCUS-FAECIUM

Three liver transplant patients developed serious intraabdominal infec tions and recurrent bacteremias due to strains of Enterococcus faecium with high-level resistance to vancomycin. The enterococci were also r esistant to all other antibacterials except pristinamycin, which, give n orally, proved ineffective. One strain was sensitive to tetracycline . Increasingly, clinicians are likely to encounter infections caused b y multiply-resistant enterococci, and these cases illustrate the serio usness of such infections in compromised patients.