Clinical features of patients with invasive Eikenella corrodens infectionsand microbiological characteristics of the causative isolates

Clinical features of 43 cases of invasive Eikenella corrodens infections di agnosed at National Taiwan University Hospital during a 6-year period (1993 -1998) were analyzed. The clinical syndromes included head and neck infecti on (56%), pulmonary infection (23%), intra-abdominal infection (14%), cutan eous infection (5%), skeletal infection (2%), endocarditis (2%), and pelvic abscess (2%). Nearly two-thirds of the patients (63%) had pre-existing dis eases. Malignancy (35%), especially of the head and neck, was the most comm on underlying illness. More than half of the patients (56%) had associated factors predisposing to invasive Eikenella corrodens infection. Polymicrobi al infections occurred in 28 (65%) patients, with two-thirds of the concurr ent isolates being streptococci (66%). Five cases were fatal, with four dea ths directly attributable to invasive Eikenella corrodens infection. Antimi crobial susceptibility testing and molecular typing were performed on 23 pr eserved Eikenella corrodens isolates. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing showed that Eikenella corrodens isolates were susceptible to penicillin, am oxicillin, cefoxitin, cefotaxime, cefepime, ciprofloxacin, and imipenem. Th e isolates were resistant to clindamycin, metronidazole, cephalothin, and c efuroxime. None of the 23 isolates produced beta -lactamase. Random amplifi ed polymorphic DNA patterns of the 23 isolates were different, suggesting t hat different clones of Eikenella corrodens caused these infections.