''Paeniclostridium sordellii'' is a rare

anaerobic Anaerobic means "living, active, occurring, or existing in the absence of free oxygen", as opposed to aerobic which means "living, active, or occurring only in the presence of oxygen." Anaerobic may also refer to: * Anaerobic adhesive, a bonding a ...

gram-positive In bacteriology, gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test, which is traditionally used to quickly classify bacteria into two broad categories according to their type of cell wall. Gram-positive bact ...

, spore-forming rod with peritrichous flagella that is capable of causing

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

endocarditis Endocarditis is an inflammation of the inner layer of the heart, the endocardium. It usually involves the heart valves. Other structures that may be involved include the interventricular septum, the chordae tendineae, the mural endocardium, or the ...

arthritis Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In som ...

peritonitis Peritonitis is inflammation of the localized or generalized peritoneum, the lining of the inner wall of the abdomen and cover of the abdominal organs. Symptoms may include severe pain, swelling of the abdomen, fever, or weight loss. One part o ...

, and myonecrosis. ''C. sordellii''

bacteremia Bloodstream infections (BSIs), which include bacteremias when the infections are bacterial and fungemias when the infections are fungal, are infections present in the blood. Blood is normally a sterile environment, so the detection of microbe ...

and

sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...

occur rarely. Most cases of sepsis from ''C. sordellii'' occur in patients with underlying conditions. Severe

toxic shock syndrome Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a condition caused by bacterial toxins. Symptoms may include fever, rash, skin peeling, and low blood pressure. There may also be symptoms related to the specific underlying infection such as mastitis, osteomyeli ...

among previously healthy persons has been described in a small number of ''C. sordellii'' cases, most often associated with gynecologic infections in women and infection of the umbilical stump in newborns. It has also been described in

post-partum The postpartum (or postnatal) period begins after childbirth and is typically considered to end within 6 weeks as the mother's body, including hormone levels and uterus size, returns to a non-pregnant state. The terms puerperium, puerperal peri ...

females, medically induced abortions,

injection drug users Drug injection is a method of introducing a drug into the bloodstream via a hollow hypodermic needle, which is pierced through the skin into the body (usually intravenously, but also at an intramuscular or subcutaneous location). Intraveno ...

and trauma cases. So far, all documented post-partum females who contracted ''C. sordellii'' septicaemia have died, and all but one woman who contracted the bacterium post-abortion have died . __TOC__

Infection

The source of the bacteria has not been determined but it has been documented that about 0.5% to 10% of healthy women are lengthened vaginal carriage of ''C. sordellii''. There are several clinical features which are unique to C. sordellii: marked leukocytosis (leukaemoid reaction), refractory hypotension, severe tachycardia, haemoconcentration, persistent apyrexia and profound capillary leak syndrome (see entry for '' Clostridium novyi'' alpha-toxin for details of mechanism). In terms of management, there is no hard and fast rule, as with most bacterial pathogens, but past data reveals ''C. sordellii'' susceptibility to

beta-lactam A beta-lactam (β-lactam) ring is a four-membered lactam. A ''lactam'' is a cyclic amide, and ''beta''-lactams are named so because the nitrogen atom is attached to the β-carbon atom relative to the carbonyl. The simplest β-lactam possible i ...

clindamycin Clindamycin is an antibiotic medication used for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections, including osteomyelitis (bone) or joint infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, strep throat, pneumonia, acute otitis media (middle ear in ...

tetracycline Tetracycline, sold under various brand names, is an oral antibiotic in the tetracyclines family of medications, used to treat a number of infections, including acne, cholera, brucellosis, plague, malaria, and syphilis. Common side effects in ...

and

chloramphenicol Chloramphenicol is an antibiotic useful for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections. This includes use as an eye ointment to treat conjunctivitis. By mouth or by injection into a vein, it is used to treat meningitis, plague, chole ...

but resistant to aminoglycosides and sulphonamides.Nakamura S, Yamakawa K, Nishida S. Antibacterial susceptibility of Clostridium sordellii strains. Zentralbl Bakteriol Mikrobiol Hyg 1986; 261:345-9.

References

External links

McGregor.pdf

Pathema-''Clostridium'' Resource

Type strain of ''Clostridium sordellii'' at Bac''Dive'' - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase
Clostridiaceae Gram-positive bacteria Healthcare-associated infections Gas gangrene Bacteria described in 1927 {{Clostridia-stub