Corynebacterium Species Rarely Cause Orthopedic Infections

Abstract

Corynebacteriumspp. are rarely considered pathogens, but data onCorynebacteriumspp. as a cause of orthopedic infections are sparse. Therefore, we asked how oftenCorynebacteriumspp. caused an infection in a defined cohort of orthopedic patients with a positive culture. In addition, we aimed to determine the species variety and the susceptibility of isolated strains to define potential treatment strategies. We retrospectively assessed all bone and joint samples that were collected between 2006 and 2015 from an orthopedic ward and that were positive forCorynebacteriumspp. by culture. The isolates were considered relevant to an infection if the sameCorynebacteriumsp. was present in at least two samples. We found 97 orthopedic cases with isolation ofCorynebacteriumspp. (128 positive samples). These were mainlyCorynebacterium tuberculostearicum(n= 26),Corynebacterium amycolatum(n= 17),Corynebacterium striatum(n= 13), andCorynebacterium afermentans(n= 11). Compared to the species found in a cohort of patients with positive blood cultures hospitalized in nonorthopedic wards, we found significantly moreC. striatum- andC. tuberculostearicum-positive cases but noC. jeikeium-positive cases in our orthopedic cohort. Only 16 out of 66 cases (24.2%) with an available diagnostic set of at least two samples had an infection. Antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) showed various susceptibility results for all antibiotics except vancomycin and linezolid, to which 100% of the isolates were susceptible. The rates of susceptibility of corynebacteria isolated from orthopedic samples and of isolates from blood cultures were comparable. In conclusion, our study results confirmed that aCorynebacteriumsp. is most often isolated as a contaminant in a cohort of orthopedic patients. AST is necessary to define the optimal treatment in orthopedic infections.

Clinical relevance and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of the unknown human pathogen Corynebacterium aurimucosum

“…The predominance of C. aurimucosum in bone/synovial fluid samples (50 %) is consistent with a previous study where this species represented the second most frequently isolated species (8 of 31 cases, 26 %) after C. striatum from BJIs by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis [4]. The implication of C. aurimucosum was also reported in six other BJI cases in three other studies [7,8,10]. Less frequently, C. aurimucosum has also been described as a cause of UTIs, with only two cases reported to date, including one UTI after urethroplasty and one recurrent UTI [9,11].…”

“…Note that C. aurimucosum has already been recovered from blood cultures but considered as a contaminant [10].…”

“…aurimucosum . Only a few case reports of infections have been described to date, mostly BJIs and UTIs [4, 6–11]. Less frequent localizations were also described such as vaginal secretions of a woman who experienced a spontaneous abortion or erythrasma lesions in interdigital spaces of the feet [12, 13].…”

“…Even though its identification to the species level has been greatly facilitated by the use of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry in clinical laboratories, little is known about the pathogenicity of C. aurimucosum. Only a few case reports of infections have been described to date, mostly BJIs and UTIs [4,[6][7][8][9][10][11]. Less frequent localizations were also described such as vaginal secretions of a woman who experienced a spontaneous abortion or erythrasma lesions in interdigital spaces of the feet [12,13].…”

Role of Williamsia and Segniliparus in human infections with the approach taxonomy, cultivation, and identification methods

“…To date, various infections cause by actinomycetes are on the rise. The most common genera that cause infections in this suborder include Corynebacterium (such as Corynebacterium accolens [ 6 ], Corynebacterium afermentans [ 6 ], Corynebacterium amycolatum [ 6 ], Corynebacterium appendicis [ 7 ], Corynebacterium argentoratense [ 7 ], Corynebacterium aurimucosum [ 6 ], Corynebacterium coyleae [ 7 ], Corynebacterium diphtheriae bv. mitis [ 6 ], Corynebacterium durum [ 7 ], Corynebacterium freneyi [ 7 ], Corynebacterium glucuronolyticum [ 6 ], Corynebacterium hansenii [ 7 ], Corynebacterium imitans [ 6 ], Corynebacterium jeikeium [ 6 ], Corynebacterium kroppenstedtii [ 8 ], Corynebacterium lipophiloflavum [ 7 ], Corynebacterium macginleyi [ 6 ], Corynebacterium massiliense [ 7 ], Corynebacterium minutissimum [ 6 ], Corynebacterium mucifaciens [ 6 ], Corynebacterium mycetoides [ 7 ], Corynebacterium pseudodiphtheriticum [ 6 ], Corynebacterium pilbarense [ 7 ], Corynebacterium propinquum [ 6 ], Corynebacterium pyruviciproducens [ 7 ], Corynebacterium riegelii [ 7 ], Corynebacterium resistans [ 7 ], Corynebacterium simulans [ 6 ], Corynebacterium singular [ 7 ], Corynebacterium sputi [ 7 ], Corynebacterium stationis [ 7 ], Corynebacterium striatum [ 6 ], Corynebacterium sundsvallense [ 7 ], Corynebacterium thomsenii [ 7 ], Corynebacterium timonense [ 7 ], Corynebacterium tuberculostearicum [ 6 ], Corynebacterium tuscaniense [ 7 ], Corynebacterium ureicelerivorans [ 6 ]), Gordonia (such as Gordonia aichiensis [ 9 ], Gordonia amicalis [ 9 ], Gordonia araii [ …”