[Staphylococcal sepsis associated with platelet transfusion: report of a new case and review of the literature]

Abstract

Bacterial contamination of blood components is an infrequent although potentially fatal event. Bacterial contamination rate of platelet concentrates (PC) varies between 1/900 to 1/2,000 random donor units. However the risk of symptomatic bacteriemias is lower (between 1/2,000 to 1/12,000 random donor units). The organisms most commonly implicated in contaminated PC are gram-positive bacteria such as coagulase negative Staphylococci, Bacillus cereus or Propionibacterium acnes, although gram-negative organisms are also found that generally are associated to a higher mortality. Here, a fatal case of sepsis due to Staphylococcus carnosus associated to transfusion of a contaminated random donor platelet unit is reported.