Case report

Catheter-related bacteremia due to Kocuria rosea in a patient undergoing peripheral blood stem cell transplantation

Fevzi Altuntas¹ , Orhan Yildiz² , Bülent Eser¹ , Kürsat Gündogan¹ , Bulent Sumerkan³ and Mustafa Çetin¹

¹  Department of Hematology-Oncology and BMT Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey

²  Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease, Faculty of Medicine, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey

³  Department of Microbiology, Erciyes University, Faculty of Medicine, Kayseri, Turkey

author email corresponding author email

BMC Infectious Diseases 2004, 4:62doi:10.1186/1471-2334-4-62

Published:	22 December 2004

Abstract

Background

Micrococcus species may cause intracranial abscesses, meningitis, pneumonia, and septic arthritis in immunosuppressed or immunocompetent hosts. In addition, strains identified as Micrococcus spp. have been reported recently in infections associated with indwelling intravenous lines, continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis fluids, ventricular shunts and prosthetic valves.

Case presentation

We report on the first case of a catheter-related bacteremia caused by Kocuria rosea, a gram-positive microorganism belonging to the family Micrococcaceae, in a 39-year-old man undergoing peripheral blood stem cell transplantation due to relapsed Hodgkin disease. This uncommon pathogen may cause opportunistic infections in immunocompromised patients.

Conclusions

This report presents a case of Kocuria rosea catheter related bacteremia after stem cell transplantation successfully treated with vancomycin and by catheter removal.