A case report of intracranial infection caused by Shewanella putrefaciens

Mengxi Duan, Dali Wang, Jing Wang, Xiaoguang Xiao, Lixia Han, Fenghua Zhang

Shewanella putrefaciens is as yet reputed to be a rare conditional pathogen. In recent years, some clinical infections caused by Shewanella putrefaciens came into view, and it was possible for the bacteria to be isolated from blood, pus, urine, sputum, and wound secretions, etc. A transferred patient who suffered from intracranial infection after operation of cerebral hemorrhage was admitted in the First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University. To ascertain the cause, we assessed her blood, cerebrospinal fluid and sputum specimen, and succeeded in isolating one strain of bacteria from her cerebrospinal fluid. To circumvent the potential problem, further detection by Dade Behring Microscan WalkAway 96SI system and drug sensitivity identification plate was performed. Corresponding results indicated that the bacteria were certain pseudomonas with high drug resistance, only sensitive to ticarcillin/clavulanic acid and Imipenem. Eventually by 16S rDNA amplification assay, a new technique to identify pathogens genome, Shewanella putrefaciens infection was confirmed with 99 % coincidence rate. This is the first time in our hospital that Shewanella putrefaciens in the cerebrospinal fluid specimen was detected. When considering the increase of opportunistic infection, it is noteworthy to pay more attention to such situations in clinical diagnoses.