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Life-threatening infection due to community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: case report and review

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Abstract

We report an unusual case of serious, multifocal, invasive infection due to community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) in a 10-year-old girl with favorable outcome. The child manifested femoral osteomyelitis, pyomyositis, deep femoral vein thrombosis, pneumonia, encephalopathy, and disturbances of almost all organs. She remained in a critical condition for a week. Fever persisted for 6 weeks and acute phase reactants remained increased for 6 months, necessitating a 7-month antistaphylococcal therapy with a glycopeptide and clindamycin. This led to resolution of infection-associated problems during the subsequent 36 months of follow-up. CA-MRSA strain isolated from the patient harbored both staphylococcal chromosomal cassette type IV (SCCmec type IV) and Panton–Valentine leukocidin genes. A literature review of serious CA-MRSA infections indicated that only a small minority of published cases had favorable outcome.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 3rd Department of Pediatrics, Aristotle University School of Medicine, Hippokration Hospital, Konstantinoupoleos 49, 546 42, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Kalomoira Kefala-Agoropoulou, Sofia Sarafidou, Konstantinos Kollios & Emmanuel Roilides

  2. Microbiology Department, Hippokration Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Efthimia Protonotariou & Danai Vitti

  3. Radiology Department, Hippokration Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Athanasia Anastasiou

Authors
  1. Kalomoira Kefala-Agoropoulou
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  2. Efthimia Protonotariou
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  6. Konstantinos Kollios
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  7. Emmanuel Roilides
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Correspondence to Emmanuel Roilides.

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Kefala-Agoropoulou, K., Protonotariou, E., Vitti, D. et al. Life-threatening infection due to community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: case report and review. Eur J Pediatr 169, 47–53 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-009-0977-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-009-0977-1

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