[Community-acquired Pseudomonas stutzeri meningitis in an immunocompetent patient]

Abstract

Pseudomonas stutzeri which is an aerobic, non-fermentative gram-negative bacillus frequently found in soil, water and hospital environment, rarely leads to serious community-acquired infections. In this report a case of community-acquired meningitis due to P. stutzeri was presented. A 73-years-old male patient was admitted to the emergency department with the complaints of nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, difficulties in walking and speaking and loss of consciousness. There was no history of an underlying disease or immunosuppression. Physical examination revealed nuchal rigidity, however, Kernig and Brudzinski signs were negative. The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis revealed 0.4 mg/dl glucose (simultaneous blood glucose 145 mg/dl), and 618 mg/dl protein and 640 leucocyte/mm3 (90% PMNL). No bacteria were detected in Gram stained and Ehrlich-Ziehl-Neelsen stained CSF smears. Upon the diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis, treatment with ceftriaxone and ampicillin was initiated, however, the patient died after 16 hours of hospitalization. CSF culture yielded the growth of gram-negative oxidase-positive bacteria and the isolate was identified as P. stutzeri by Vitek-2 Compact system (bioMerieux, France). The isolate was found to be sensitive to piperacillin/tazobactam, amikacin, gentamycin, ceftazidime, cefepime, ciprofloxacin, imipenem and meropenem. Since the patient was lost due to acute respiratory and cardiac failure, it was not possible to change the therapy to agent specific therapy. In conclusion, it should always be kept in mind that uncommon agents could lead to community-acquired meningitis in elderly patients and empirical treatment protocols might fail in such cases resulting in high morbidity and mortality.