Disseminated skin infection due to Mycobacterium fortuitum in an immunocompetent patient

Abstract

Skin infections caused by atypical rapid-growing mycobacteria, which used considered to be unusual, have become more frequent, especially in immunodepressed patients. Clinical cutaneous disease with these pathogens seems to follow two patterns: in the immunocompetent host, a traumatic injury is followed by the development of localized abscess formation; but in the immunocompromised individual there is no history of trauma and the patient presents with multiple subcutaneous nodular lesions. We describe a rare case of an immunocompetent young woman with disseminated skin infection due to Mycobacterium fortuitum. We emphasize the diagnostic and therapeutic problems associated with such infections.