UMMS Affiliation
Department of Medicine
Publication Date
2018-10-11
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Bacterial Infections and Mycoses | Diagnosis | Infectious Disease | Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms | Respiratory Tract Diseases | Therapeutics
Abstract
Staphylococcus simulans is a coagulase-negative organism, mainly an animal pathogen. Reports of human infection have been infrequent, mainly in patients with repeated animal contact. We report the first case of pleural empyema in an elderly woman. S. simulans tends to cause more severe infection because of a biofilm layer which helps in adherence and colonization of smooth surfaces, especially prosthetic devices, shunts, and catheters. The challenging problem even after CoNS isolation and identification is the assessment of their clinical relevance. Major factors that inhibit the penetration of antibiotics is the large-sized effusions/empyema, thickness of pleura, and the nature of antibiotic itself. Source control for septic patients remains the cornerstone of treatment along with optimal antimicrobial coverage. Staphylococcus simulans, a coagulase-negative staphylococcus, is emerging as an important cause of virulent infections with high mortality in humans. Given its propensity for multidrug resistance, including vancomycin, there is an imperative for early and accurate identification of the isolate. Despite aggressive treatment, the patient succumbed to her illness.
Keywords
pleural empyema, bacterial infection, Staphylococcus simulans
Rights and Permissions
Copyright © 2018 Amos Lal et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
DOI of Published Version
10.1155/2018/7831284
Source
Case Rep Infect Dis. 2018 Oct 11;2018:7831284. doi: 10.1155/2018/7831284. eCollection 2018. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Case reports in infectious diseases
Related Resources
PubMed ID
30405924
Repository Citation
Lal, Amos; Akhtar, Jamal; Ullah, Ashfaq; and Abraham, George, "First Case of Pleural Empyema Caused by Staphylococcus simulans: Review of the Literature" (2018). Open Access Articles. 3651.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/oapubs/3651
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
Bacterial Infections and Mycoses Commons, Diagnosis Commons, Infectious Disease Commons, Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Commons, Respiratory Tract Diseases Commons, Therapeutics Commons