[An autopsy case of fulminant community-acquired pneumonia due to Acinetobacter baumannii]

Abstract

A 73-year-old man with underlying chronic renal failure, angina pectoris, chronic heart failure, and respiratory failure reporting three-day appetite loss, fever, and drowsiness was admitted for lower right lung pneumonia. Despite antibiotic administration, infiltration progressed to the entire right lung and upper left lung after 12 hours, and he developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multiple organ failure. Respirator ventilation and continuous hemodiafiltration (CHDF) failed to halt this progression and he died on hospital day 3. Acinetobacter baumannii was cultured from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and the postmortem lung specimen, indicating that his severe community-acquired pneumonia was due to A. baumannii. Microscopically, the lung specimen showed prominent cellular alveolar exudate and partial hyaline membrane with suppurative pneumonia. Although A. baumannii is considered the causative agent in nosocomical pneumonia, community-acquired pneumonia due to A. baumannii is very rare. This is, to our knowledge, the first report in Japan. In the subtropical zone, A. baumannii is recognized as an important cause of severe community-acquired pneumonia. Given the apparent progress of global warming, physicians in Japan would do well to familiarize themselves with subtropical disease causes such A. baumannii when managing severe community-acquired pneumonia.