Subject(s)
Bronchial Diseases/microbiology , Lung Diseases, Fungal/microbiology , Mitosporic Fungi/isolation & purification , Mycoses/microbiology , Aged , Amphotericin B/pharmacology , Colistin/pharmacology , Flucytosine/pharmacology , Geotrichosis , Humans , Male , Microbial Sensitivity Tests , Middle Aged , Mitosporic Fungi/drug effects , Mitosporic Fungi/growth & development , Neomycin/pharmacology , Potassium Iodide/pharmacology , Sulfadiazine/pharmacologyABSTRACT
The diagnosis of pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis was made in seven narcotic addicts between 1967 and 1972. Vertebrae involved were either cervical or lumbar. Bacteriologic diagnosis was made in each case by percutaneous needle biopsy and aspiration. Staphylococcus aureus was cultured in two patients. Five patients had infections due to Gram-negative bacteria, including Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter. All patients were cured by treatment with antibiotics and immobilization.
Subject(s)
Bacterial Infections/etiology , Cervical Vertebrae , Lumbar Vertebrae , Osteomyelitis/etiology , Substance-Related Disorders/complications , Adolescent , Adult , Bacteria/isolation & purification , Biopsy, Needle , California , Female , Heroin , Heroin Dependence/complications , Humans , Injections, Intravenous/adverse effects , Klebsiella pneumoniae/isolation & purification , Male , Osteomyelitis/diagnostic imaging , Osteomyelitis/microbiology , Pseudomonas aeruginosa/isolation & purification , Radiography , Staphylococcal Infections/etiologyABSTRACT
The number of cases of bacterial endocarditis in drug addicts seen at UCLA and Wadsworth Veterans Administration hospitals increased sharply in 1971 over the average of the four preceding years. Enteric Gram-negative bacilli were the infecting organism in three of the seven cases seen in 1971 but were not found in any cases of endocarditis in the 1967-70 period. Medical treatment of the patients was, in general, unsuccessful in spite of the intensive use of newer antimicrobials active against enteric Gram-negative bacilli. One patient died with fulminant Pseudomonas endocarditis and two others (Pseudomonas and Serratia endocarditis) eventually required operations on the heart before a cure was achieved.
