Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Ostreidae

This oyster-catcher with alcoholic cirrhosis in the Chesapeake Bay presents during the summer with the wound infections shown above. The wounds look pretty bad, so you keep him in the ED for a few hours. Over that time period, he becomes hypotensive, tachycardic, and obtunded; you admit him to the ICU for sepsis. Blood cultures grow out the bacteria shown in panel C.

Challenge: What's the bug?

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2 comments:

  1. AlexOctober 30, 2009 at 7:02 PM

    vibrio vuln?

    ReplyDelete
  2. CraigNovember 2, 2009 at 11:28 AM

    yep! sorry late response
    -
    Ostreidae

    This is vibrio vulnificus, a shellfish (and oyster) associated gram-negative infection. Presentation includes wound infection, septiciemia, and bullous skin infections.

    Sources: UpToDate; www.cdc.gov.

    ReplyDelete

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