The first case report of human infection with Phyllobacterium myrsinacearum causing spondylodiscitis

Abstract

Phyllobacterium myrsinacearum is an organism not previously described as causing infections in humans. We report the case of a 63-year-old gentleman who presented with breathlessness, reduced Glasgow Coma Scale and septic shock requiring intensive care unit admission. Whilst CT imaging showed a severe pneumonia, it also revealed findings consistent with an L1–2 discitis. The biopsy of this spinal disc revealed the above organism on 16S rDNA Real-Time PCR. Having initially thought this may be a contaminant, extensive step-wise review of the processing of the sample suggested this was likely to be a true finding and left us with a number of questions such as how did it get there, what was the optimal antibiotic regimen and how long to treat it for?

Keywords

• Rare causative organism
• 16S rDNA Real-Time PCR
• Phyllobacterium
• Discitis