Pulmonary actinomycosis complicated by effusive constrictive pericarditis

Abstract A case of pulmonary actinomycosis presenting with a right calf abscess and complicated by effusive constrictive pericarditis is discussed. Clinical improvement occurred with antibiotic therapy and pericardiectomy. There was no evidence of recurrence after 18 months. (Aust NZ J Med 1991; 21: 879–880.)     

Optimal duration of IV and oral antibiotics in the treatment of thoracic actinomycosis

STUDY OBJECTIVE: IV antibiotic therapy for 2 to 6 weeks followed by 6 to 12 months of oral antibiotic therapy is usually recommended for the treatment of thoracic actinomycosis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the duration of IV and oral antibiotic therapy for thoracic actinomycosis. METHODS: We present a retrospective case series of 28 patients with thoracic actinomycosis as confirmed by histopathology from October 1994 through December 2003. RESULTS: After diagnosis of actinomycosis, 54% (15 of 28 patients) received antibiotic therapy alone. The duration of IV antibiotic therapy ranged from 0 to 18 days (median, 2 days; interquartile range [IQR], 0 to 3 days), and the duration of oral antibiotic treatment ranged from 76 to 412 days (median, 167 days; IQR, 142 to 214 days) in patients who received antibiotics alone. Combination surgical and antibiotic therapy occurred in 46% (13 of 28 patients). The duration of IV antibiotic therapy ranged from 3 to 17 days (median, 8 days; IQR, 5 to 13 days), and the duration of oral antibiotic therapy ranged from 0 to 534 days (median, 150 days; IQR, 3.5 to 289 days) in these patients. Clinical cures were achieved in 96% (27 of 28 patients). There was no clinical evidence of recurrence during follow-up period at our hospital (median, 23 months; IQR, 9 to 44 months) in 21 patients, excluding 7 patients who were transferred to referring hospitals after completion of antibiotic therapy (n = 6) or during antibiotic therapy (n = 1). CONCLUSIONS: Thoracic actinomycosis is best treated with individualized therapeutic modalities, depending on factors such as the initial burden of disease, the performance of resectional surgery, and the clinical and radiologic responses to therapy. The traditional recommendation of IV antibiotic therapy for 2 to 6 weeks followed by oral antibiotic therapy for 6 to 12 months is not always necessary for all thoracic actinomycosis patients.     

Hemoptysis as an unusual presenting symptom of invasion of a descending thoracic aortic aneurysmal dissection by lung cancer

A 70-year-old woman with a known chronic dissecting aneurysm of the descending thoracic aorta presented with new-onset back pain and hemoptysis. The hemoptysis was thought to be the result of invasion of the bronchial tree by the aneurysm. During surgical repair, a lesion that appeared to be a pulmonary abscess was discovered to be adhering to the aortic tissue, and the patient underwent a localized pulmonary resection. The pathology report of the surgical specimens revealed squamous cell carcinoma of the lung with infiltration of the aortic wall. The patient died of lung cancer 6 months later. Hemoptysis was an unusual presentation in a case of lung cancer that had invaded a stable chronic aortic aneurysm.     

Isolated pleural actinomycosis. Apropos of 2 cases

Two cases of isolated pleural actinomycosis are reported. This form is much less frequent than the pulmonary form, and it accounts for only 20% of thoracic actinomycoses. The bacteriological diagnosis is easily obtainable by pleural puncture, provided it has not been obscured by previous antibiotic therapy and provided the organism has systematically been cultured under anaerobic conditions. Pleural actinomycosis has a very favourable prognosis. Local treatment, sometimes surgical, is indispensable. If the condition is diagnosed at an early stage, systemic antibiotic therapy can be reduced to 6 to 12 weeks.     

Femoral artery infection associated with a percutaneous arterial suture device

This is a case report of a femoral artery infection with fatal outcome after using a percutaneous suture mediated closure device: A 77-year old patient underwent diagnostic angiography of his thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysm, the puncture site was closed with the Perclose system. He developed a staphylococcal femoral artery infection with groin abscess, requiring surgical intervention with debridement and removal of the Perclose suture. After stent graft exclusion of the thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysm a staphylococcal sepsis occurred and the patient died of aneurysm rupture months later despite long term antibiotic therapy. Since the use of the Perclose device carries an increased risk of femoral artery infection with septic endarteritis and bacteremia, it should not be used in routine diagnostic angiography.     

Thoracic actinomycosis: three cases

Actinomycosis is a rare condition which, in the thoracic localisation, can mimic cancer or tuberculosis. We report a series of three case of thoracic actinomycosis treated in the Ibn Sina University Thoracic Surgery Unit in Rabat, Morocco. CASE N degrees 1: This 45-year-old patient presented a tumefaction on the left anterior aspect of the chest. Physical examination identified a parietal mass with fistulisation to the skin. Radiography demonstrated a left pulmonary mass. Transparietal puncture led to the pathological diagnosis of actinomycosis. The patient was given medical treatment and improved clinically and radiographically. CASE N degrees 2: This 68-year-old patient presented repeated episodes of hemoptysis. The chest x-ray revealed atelectasia of the middle lobe and bronchial fibroscopy demonstrated the presence of a bud in the middle lobar bronchus. Biopsies were negative. The patient underwent surgery and the histology examination of the operative specimen revealed pulmonary actinomycosis. The patient recovered well clinically and radiographically with antibiotic therapy. CASE N degrees 3: This 56-year-old patient presented cough and hemoptysis. Physical examination revealed a left condensation and destruction of the left lung was noted on the chest x-ray. Left pleuropulmonectomy was performed. Histological analysis of the surgical specimen identified associated Aspergillus and Actinomyces. The outcome was favorable with medical treatment. The purpose of this work was to recall the radiological, clinical, histological, therapeutic, outcome aspects of this condition and to relate the problems of differential diagnosis when can suggest other diseases.     

Pericarditis, pneumonia and brain abscess due to a combined Actinomyces--Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans infection.

A patient is described in whom there developed a pulmonary infiltrate and constrictive pericarditis caused by a combined Actinomyces and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans infection, presumably originating from his poor dentition. The diagnosis was only made following repeated thoracotomy. After surgery, long-term treatment with antibiotics led to complete clinical recovery. None the less, some months later he was found to have a brain abscess which resolved during a further course of antibiotics. The variable clinical picture of actinomycosis is discussed, as well as the role of other bacteria frequently associated with actinomycotic infection, in particular Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans. The therapeutic implications are described.     

Vertebral actinomycosis with spinal cord compression. A case report]

INTRODUCTION: Vertebral involvement of actinomycosis is extremely rare and associated spinal cord compression is unusual. EXEGESIS: We report a case of a 31-year-old man with vertebral actinomycosis presenting with spinal cord compression. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a paravertebral abscess and lytic areas on the vertebral body of C5 requiring emergency surgery and antibiotic treatment. The patient was still asymptomatic after 12 months of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Clinical aspects of this unusual localization are reviewed. Treatment may be particularly difficult.     

Otogenic brain abscess--a case report

Brain abscess is one of the life-threatening complications of otitis media. Mortality and morbidity have decreased with the advent of antibiotic therapy. More frequently encountered in cases of acute otitis media in the preantibiotic era, in recent years otogenic brain abscess was noticed almost only in patients of chronic otitis media with cholesteatoma. A case of brain abscess in a 49-year-old female was initially diagnosed as a headache. A high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan of the temporal bones later revealed that there were two abscesses over the right side temporal lobe. A modified radical mastoidectomy was performed. Cultures of the middle ear cholesteatoma later grew Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Strenotrophomonas maltophilia. Antibiotic therapy was carried on for three months postoperatively. The patient improved but retained a conductive hearing loss.     

An unusual case of hepatic abscess.

A case of recurring primary hepatic actinomycosis is reported. A 50-year-old man presented with fever, weight loss and multiple hepatic masses. A diagnosis was obtained by cytological examination of a biopsy sample taken from the largest hepatic mass, which revealed the presence of Actinomyces species. The patient was treated with penicillin for 12 months and did well. Seven years later, he presented with similar symptoms but with a single large liver mass and a pulmonary infiltrate in the right lower lobe. Liver biopsy showed an inflammatory pseudotumour, and lung biopsy showed the presence of Actinomyces species. Again, the patient was treated with penicillin. Five months later, the patient was doing well, and a follow-up computed tomography scan showed partial regression of the hepatic pseudotumour. This case indicates that hepatic actinomycosis can recur several years after an appropriate treatment and stresses the need for careful follow-up in such patients.     

A survey of thoracic actinomycosis

We have reviewed the case notes of 19 patients with thoracic actinomycosis. The median age at presentation was 42 (range 9-66) years, 15 were male and 12 were urban residents. Cough, sputum production, chest pain and weight loss were the commonest symptoms. Six patients reported haemoptysis. In contrast with the classical appearances of thoracic actinomycosis, only four patients had cutaneous abnormalities, and only one patient had radiological evidence of bone involvement. The provisional diagnosis was bronchial carcinoma in nine patients, and in seven patients the diagnosis of actinomycosis was only made after resection of the lesion, in two cases by pneumonectomy. The median delay between presentation and diagnosis was 3.5 (range 1-24) weeks. Two patients developed extrathoracic complications, but all patients made a full recovery after receiving antibiotic therapy for a median of 6 (range 1-24) weeks. Thoracic actinomycosis is rare, but should still be considered in the differential diagnosis of a pulmonary lesion thought to be malignant.     

Esophagectomy for complications of esophageal intramural pseudodiverticulosis

This report describes the clinical course of a patient with complications of esophageal intramural pseudodiverticulosis. The condition led to fistulization and abscess formation in the mediastinum. The initial presentation was for the septic process and appropriate antibiotic therapy led to infection control while the abscess drained spontaneously back into the esophageal lumen. A long stricture affecting the distal half of the esophagus became evident after a few months and could not be managed by repeat dilatations. After appropriate preparation, subtotal esophagectomy was offered to the patient with an initial right thoracic approach followed by laparotomy and left cervical reconstruction. A total gastric tube was used for reconstruction and placed in a substernal position. An uneventful postoperative evolution led to normal swallowing comfort.     

Actinomycosis of the central nervous system

Actinomyces species are rare but treatable causes of CNS infection. Differentiation of actinomycosis from nocardiosis is crucial to the selection of appropriate antimicrobial therapy. A review of 70 cases of CNS actinomycosis was conducted in an effort to characterize clinicopathologic features and identify patients with a high risk of death from infection. Types of lesions included brain abscess (67%), meningitis or meningoencephalitis (13%), actinomycoma (7%), subdural empyema (6%), and epidural abscess (6%). Most infections developed from distant sites (lung, 19 cases; abdomen, four; pelvis, three) or contiguous foci (ear, sinus, and cervicofacial region, 21 cases). For nonmeningitic infection, signs and symptoms were generally those of a space-occupying lesion and were indistinguishable from the manifestations of other pyogenic infections except for a longer interval before diagnosis. Risk factors included dental caries; dental infection; recent tooth extraction; head trauma; gastrointestinal tract surgery; chronic otitis, mastoiditis, or sinusitis; chronic osteomyelitis; tetralogy of Fallot; and actinomyces infection of an intrauterine device. Optimal management combined adequate surgical drainage with prolonged antibiotic therapy (mean duration, 5 months). Overall mortality from treated infection was 28%; 54% of survivors had neurologic sequelae. Features correlated with a poor prognosis were disease onset greater than 2 months before diagnosis and treatment, no antibiotic treatment, no surgery, and needle aspiration drainage of abscess lesions.     

Early responses to H7N9 in southern Mainland China

Background

There have been few studies of pulmonary actinomycosis, which is an uncommon anaerobic infection. Consequently, the optimal therapeutic regimen, appropriate duration of treatment, long-term prognosis, and factors predicting prognosis are not well established.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of histopathologically confirmed cases of pulmonary actinomycosis seen between November 2003 and December 2012.

Results

The study included 68 patients with a mean age of 58.4?±?11.6 years. Of the 68, initial surgery was performed in 15 patients (22.1%), while the remaining 53 (77.9%) received antibiotic therapy initially. In the initial antibiotic group, 45/53 (84.9%) were cured without relapse (median antibiotic duration 5.3 months). 5/53 (9.4%) patients were refractory medically (median antibiotic duration 9.7 months), and 3/53 (5.7%) experienced a recurrence (median time to relapse 35.3 months). In the initial surgery group, 14/15 (93.3%) were cured and treatment failure occurred in one (6.7%). In the multivariate analysis, the absence of an antibiotic response at 1 month was the only independent factor associated with a poor treatment outcome, with an adjusted odds ratio of 49.2 (95% CI, 3.34–724.30). There was no significant difference in treatment outcome based on the size of the parenchymal lesion, comorbidities, whether intravenous antibiotics were used, antibiotic therapy duration, or whether the initial treatment was surgical.

Conclusions

Antibiotic treatment with or without surgery was effective for treatment of pulmonary actinomycosis. Nevertheless, treatment failure or recurrence occurred in a considerable proportion of patients, especially those resistant to the initial antibiotic treatment.     

Endoscopic transgastric drainage of a gastric wall abscess after endoscopic submucosal dissection

A 63-year-old woman was referred to our hospital for further examination because of an incidental finding of early gastric cancer.Endoscopic submucosal dissection(ESD)was successfully performed for complete resection of the tumor.On the first post-ESD day,the patient suddenly complained of abdominal pain after an episode of vomiting.Abdominal computed tomography(CT)showed delayed perforation after ESD.The patient was conservatively treated with an intravenous proton pump inhibitor and antibiotics.On the fifth post-ESD day,CT revealed a gastric wall abscess in the gastric body.Gastroscopy revealed a gastric fistula at the edge of the post-ESD ulcer,and pus was found flowing into the stomach.An intradrainage stent and an extradrainage nasocystic catheter were successfully inserted into the abscess for endoscopic transgastric drainage.After the procedure,the clinical symptoms and laboratory test results improved quickly.Two months later,a follow-up CT scan showed no collection of pus.Consequently,the intradrainage stent was removed.Although the gastric wall abscess recurred 2 wk after stent removal,it recovered soon after endoscopic transgastric drainage.Finally,after stent removal and oral antibiotic treatment for 1 mo,no recurrence of the gastric wall abscess was found.     

Primary actinomycosis of the anterior abdominal wall: case report and review of the literature

Actinomycosis of the anterior abdominal wall is a rare infection caused by different Actinomyces species. We report a case of primary actinomycosis localized on the anterior abdominal wall, diagnosed by computed tomography (CT) scan, postoperatively confirmed by histopathological examination and treated by surgical resection combined with postoperative antibiotic therapy. The patient has been free of recurrence after 1 year. A review of the available literature is also presented.     

Giant dissecting aortic aneurysm with concealed perforation in an 81-year-old female

This paper describes the history of an 81-year-old female suffering from a giant dissecting aortic aneurysm with concealed perforation within the thorax. The patient had suffered from arterial hypertension for about 10 years and had been treated with thiazide. Nine months prior to admission the patient was in a state of collapse, and ultrasound examination revealed an intra-abdominal aortic aneurysm. At this time thoracic x-ray showed aortic sclerosis and elongation of the aorta but no signs of aneurysm formation. After this episode the patient was symptom-free for the next 9 months. Following a further syncopal attack with severe thoracic pain, the patient was hospitalized at the intensive care unit. Both in thoracic x-ray and computed tomography of the thorax, a pronounced dissecting aortic aneurysm with perforation of the thoracic aorta into the mediastinum could be established. Because of the patient's poor general condition and advanced age, as well as far reaching pathological findings, surgery was not advised by either the heart and vascular surgeon or the anesthetist. Following 1 week's intensive therapy, the patient's general condition improved greatly, with stabilization of thoracic pain, blood pressure, and respiratory action. On the other hand, thoracic x-ray, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging produced a distinct progression of the aneurysm with consequent mild displacement of mediastinum and left lung. Laboratory examinations for syphilis showed no evidence of that disease. After further improvement the patient was discharged 4 weeks after admission and has been symptom-free for 6 months in spite of the extensive pathological findings described herein. This case demonstrates the efficacy of conventional therapy when surgery is not recommended.     

Professor Ahmed Shafik (1933–2007)

Most cases of anal abscess are caused by anal fistula and invasion of the surrounding tissues by a mixed colonic flora. Treatment consists of excision of the abscess and, in case of fistula, fistulectomy. Primary anorectal and perianal forms of actinomycosis are very rare and caused by actinomyces, as ubiquitous anaerobics bacterium. We report a case of perianal actinomycosis. The patient had a short history of painless perineal induration without fever and leukocytosis with normal results at routine blood examination. After excision, sulfur granules drained from the cavity and pathological investigations indicated perianal actinomycosis. Appropriate surgery and antibiotic treatment healed the perianal infection. After exclusion of possible diagnoses such as Crohn’s disease, tuberculosis and malignant growths, the rare case of perianal actinomycosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of painless perianal masses.     

Right Ventricular Endocarditis in a Pregnant Woman with a Restrictive Ventricular Septal Defect

A 22‐year‐old woman with a restrictive unoperated perimembranous ventricular septal defect was diagnosed with staphylococcal endocarditis during her 14th week of pregnancy. Echocardiography revealed a long, thin, and mobile vegetation along the right ventricular free wall that increased to 8 cm in length, with systolic protrusion across the pulmonary valve. The vegetation subsequently embolized, resulting in a pulmonary abscess. She responded favorably to intravenous antibiotic therapy maintained for a total of 6 weeks, with resolution of the intracardiac mass and pulmonary abscess. The remaining peripartum and postpartum course was relatively unremarkable. Percutaneous closure of the ventricular septal defect was successfully performed postpartum.     

Intra-abdominal actinomycosis with hepatic pseudotumor and xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis in a 6-y-old boy

We report the case of a 6-y-old boy with actinomycosis, presenting as xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis (XGP), hepatic pseudotumor and abdominal abscess. Symptoms included intermittent fever, abdominal pain and significant weight loss. Hepatic and renal tumor masses were suspected on sonography and computerized tomography. XGP and actinomycosis were proven by pathology. The patient recovered well with antibiotic alone.