Chest wall abscess due to Prevotella bivia

Abstract

Prevotella bivia is associated with pelvic inflammatory disease. A 77-year-old man developed a rapidly growing chest wall abscess due to P. bivia within days. He underwent surgical resection of the infected area; his postoperative course was uneventful. This is the first case of chest wall abscess due to P. bivia infection. Its correct diagnosis cannot be underestimated because fulminant infections can occur in aged or immunocompromised patients if treated incorrectly. Prompt, appropriate surgical management, and antibiotic therapy affect treatment outcome.

Mixed Infections of the Paronychium with Prevotella bivia

“…The most prevalent pathogen in acute paronychia is Staphylococcus aureus, which is the causative bacterium in 50 to 80% of cases [2][3][4]. However, anaerobic infections, especially mixed aerobic/anaerobic infections, are becoming increasingly common [1,[5][6][7]. Mixed infections, not uncommon in paronychia, provide a fertile environment for the exchange of genetic material, thus increasing both the severity of infection and the chance of developing bacterial resistance [8][9][10].…”

“…Mixed infections, not uncommon in paronychia, provide a fertile environment for the exchange of genetic material, thus increasing both the severity of infection and the chance of developing bacterial resistance [8][9][10]. Gram-negative anaerobes, which have been proven to induce a pro-inflammatory response, are normally the anaerobes involved in these mixed infections [2,5,7,10,11]. P. bivia is an anaerobic, non-pigmented, Gram-negative bacillus species which naturally thrives in the human female vaginal tract and occasionally is found in the oral flora [1,5,12,13].…”

“…Gram-negative anaerobes, which have been proven to induce a pro-inflammatory response, are normally the anaerobes involved in these mixed infections [2,5,7,10,11]. P. bivia is an anaerobic, non-pigmented, Gram-negative bacillus species which naturally thrives in the human female vaginal tract and occasionally is found in the oral flora [1,5,12,13]. Due to its ability to grow abundantly in the presence of estrogen, P. bivia is traditionally implicated in vaginal tract infections such as endometritis and pelvic inflammatory disease [5,13].…”

“…P. bivia is an anaerobic, non-pigmented, Gram-negative bacillus species which naturally thrives in the human female vaginal tract and occasionally is found in the oral flora [1,5,12,13]. Due to its ability to grow abundantly in the presence of estrogen, P. bivia is traditionally implicated in vaginal tract infections such as endometritis and pelvic inflammatory disease [5,13]. However, P. bivia has also been found in rare locations such as the nail bed, chest wall, intervertebral discs, and even the hip and knee joints [5,10,[14][15][16].…”

Unusual presentation of Streptococcus pneumoniae infection as a chest wall abscess

“…Treatment of the infection demand appropriate antibiotherapy, decided upon the identification and sensitivity tests of the bacteria. Previous studies in the literature usually cover data about chest wall abscesses arising on the base of tuberculosis, trauma or chondritis [6,7].…”