Epidemiological characteristics of infections caused by Bacteroides, Prevotella and Fusobacterium species: a prospective observational study

Abstract

In order to investigate differences among infections due to Gram-negative anaerobic bacteria (Bacteroides, Prevotella and Fusobacterium spp.), clinical, epidemiological, and microbiological data were collected and evaluated from 206 anaerobic infections. The most frequently isolated species was Bacteroides fragilis. The majority of the cases were intra-abdominal infections (49%) followed by skin and soft tissue infections (24.7%). Logistic regression analysis showed that Bacteroides spp. strains were more often isolated from intra-abdominal infections (p = 0.002), whereas Prevotella spp. were isolated more frequently from cases with shorter duration of hospitalization (p = 0.026), and less frequently from bloodstream infections (p = 0.049). In addition, Bacteroides spp. were associated with coinfection due to Enterobacteriaceae species (p = 0.007), whereas Prevotella spp. were associated with coinfection due to Staphylococcus spp. (p = 0.002). Patients with an infection due to B. fragilis, were more frequently admitted in a general surgical ward (p = 0.017), or have been treated with a 2nd generation cephalosporin before anaerobic infection onset (p = 0.05). Total mortality was 10.9% and was associated with bacteremia (p = 0.026), and hematological (p = 0.028), or solid organ malignancy (p = 0.007). Metronidazole resistance was detected only among Prevotella spp. (16.2%) and B. fragilis group (0.8%) isolates. In conclusion, this study indicated differences between infections due to the most frequently isolated Gram-negative anaerobic species, differences that may affect the design and implementation of empirical antimicrobial chemotherapy guidelines.