Professional paper
Clostridium difficile - a Respectable Ethiopathogen of Post-Antimicrobial Diarrhea with Increasingly Frequent Relapses
Irma Dizdarević
; Clinic of Infectious Diseases, Clinical Center University of Sarajevo
Fikret Pinjo
; Clinic of Infectious Diseases, Clinical Center University of Sarajevo
Abstract
Clostridium difficile is a sporogenic, anaerobic Gram+ microorganism present in gastrointestinal tract both in children and adults. Bacterial spores can be found on different surfaces and objects in everyday use, especially in hospital environment, but also on clothes and hands of healthcare professionals, which have a significant role in disease spreading. The incidence and severity of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) has increased worldwide over the last 20 years. Toxic strains of C. difficile which produce toxin A and toxin B are the most common etiopathogens of gastrointestinal symptoms evidenced after or during antibiotic therapy. Elderly people and patients treated in hospitals with coincident comorbidies are especially sensitive. Clinical presentation of CDI varies from asymptomatic to very severe forms of pseudomembranous colitis which sometimes end in colectomy and mortality in over 50% of cases. Treatment is usually efficient, but there is also a relapse possibility in 10-20% of cases. In this paper, medical histories of patients hospitalized in the Infectious Diseases Clinic in Sarajevo are analyzed retrospectively, and one case of patient with severe relapse of C. difficile infection is more closely presented.
Keywords
Clostridium difficile; post-antibiotic diarrhea; recurrence
Hrčak ID:
226068
URI
Publication date:
10.10.2019.
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