Successful treatment of Nocardia asteroides infection with minocycline in kidney transplant patients

Abstract

Two cases of Noca dia asteroides infection were encountered out of 55 kidney transplant patients at Chiba University Hospital. One patient developed an extrapleural abscess and the other had a pulmonary infiltration with chest wall abscess. The patients were successfully treated by surgical drainage of the chest wall abscesses and by oral administration of minocycline. No adverse effects caused by minocycline were observed during the therapy. From 1900, when the first case of Nocardia infection was reported in Japan, there have been 60 cases reported in Japanese literature through 1973, including those we observed. This is the first report on nocardiosis in kidney transplant patients and on successful treatment of nocardiosis with minocycline in Japan.