[Infection with Serratia marcescens in newborn infants. Clinical aspects, therapy and disease course]. / Infektionen mit Serratia marcescens bei Neugeborenen. Klinik, Therapie und Krankheitsverlauf.

Until the 1950's Serratia marcescens was generally considered as non-pathogenic for humans. Since then the organism has been reported repeatedly as a cause of nosocomial infections. The major clinical concern about Serratia marcescens is its implication in epidemic infections and its resistance to usual antibiotics causing therapy to be difficult. We report the occurrence of Serratia marcescens as the cause of severe septicemia in three premature infants. Two infants showed a severe course of sepsis, the third infant suffered from additional meningitis and a brain abscess. All infants survived, but only one had no sequela.

[Plasma separation in severe juvenile dermatomyositis]. / Plasmaseparation bei schwerer juveniler Dermatomyositis.

Because a seven year old boy with severe dermatomyositis failed to respond to a six week treatment course with prednisone (60 mg/m2) and azathioprine (2 mg/kg/d), five plasma separations were performed. Already after the second plasma separation an impressive reduction of skin ulcerations and an increase of muscle strength were noticed. So far there has been no relapse in spite of rapid reduction in the prednisone dosage.