Eggerthella lenta Bacteremia in a Middle-Aged Healthy Man with Acute Hepatic Abscess: Case Report and Literature Review, 1970–2020

Abstract

Jiazheng Wang,1,* Rui Guo,1,* Wanshan Ma,1 Xiutao Dong,1 Shaofeng Yan,2 Wenyan Xie1 1Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Shandong Medicine and Health Key Laboratory of Laboratory Medicine, Jinan, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Shandong Medicine and Health Key Laboratory of Neurosurgery, Jinan, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Wenyan XieDepartment of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Shandong Medicine and Health Key Laboratory of Laboratory Medicine, 16766 Jingshi Road, Jinan, Shandong Province, People’s Republic of ChinaTel [phone]Email [email protected] YanDepartment of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Shandong Medicine and Health Key Laboratory of Laboratory Medicine, 16766 Jingshi Road, Jinan, Shandong Province, People’s Republic of ChinaTel [phone]Email [email protected]: Eggerthella lenta (E. lenta) is a rare but significant human emerging pathogen. Infections caused by it are rare and little-known, both on clinical and therapeutical aspects, in spite of new emergence of bacteria isolation and identification techniques. In this article, we report a case involving a previously healthy 52-year-old man suffering from a newly diagnosed hepatic abscess who developed E. lenta bacteremia, which was treated successfully using empirical therapy with ertapenem and teicoplanin. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first documented report of E. lenta bacteremia related specifically to liver abscess. Cases related to this bacterial species are infrequent and sporadic; thus, we reviewed English literature on E. lenta infection in PubMed/MEDLINE in the last 50 years. A total of 31 sporadic cases were identified. The majority of patients were male (71%), had an average age of 54.3 years and presented predisposing conditions, such as digestive system trouble (45.2%), immunocompromised state (25.8%) or risk factors (22.6%). Two of the cases had more than one predisposing factors. Fever was common (93.5%). Average days to diagnosis of them were 6.8 days. MALDI-TOF MS is emerging as a fast and useful tool in the identification of it. Teicoplanin, vancomycin, amoxicillin-clavulanate, metronidazole, clindamycin, cefoxitin, chloramphenicol, and carbapenems appear to be the most used antibiotic treatment options. The purpose of this review is to increase awareness about the clinical infections caused by E. lenta.Keywords: Eggerthella lenta, infections, antibiotic therapy, diagnosis, risk factors

Keywords

• eggerthella lenta
• infections
• antibiotic therapy
• diagnosis
• risk factors