CO Sham, SY Lam, KW Li, PL Ho

Abstract

Objectives: To identify the features of infants infected by Streptococcus bovis in a regional hospital in Hong Kong. Design and setting: Case series. Main measurements: Clinical features of all patients infected by Streptococcus bovis were retrieved from the database of the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Tuen Mun Hospital, from 1999 to 2009. A literature review was also performed concerning this infection in infants. Results: Eight infants were identified from the medical record. All of the patients had Streptococcus bovis bacteraemia. Only 2 of our patients had the bacteria isolated from cerebrospinal fluid. Four of the patients presented with fever. Six of the patients were born at full term while the other 2 were premature babies. Six of the patients presented within the first 7 days of life, while the other 2 presented on Day 23 and Day 46 of life. At least 7 days of intravenous antibiotics were given. All of the patients recovered and none of our patients died. To date, all of our patients had normal growth and development. Conclusions: In our case series, fever was the most common manifestation. Respiratory distress was common but gastrointestinal disturbance was uncommon, which is different from previous reports. Further research has to be performed for better understanding of this bacterial infection in the paediatric population.

目的：分析香港區域醫院內嬰兒感染牛鏈球菌菌血症感染的特點。研究設計：病例組。主要方法：我們回顧了在香港屯門醫院的兒童及青少年科學系於1999-2009年間所有感染牛鏈球菌病人的臨床特點，同時還進行了相關的文獻回顧。結果：根據病例資料顯示共有8例相關感染，所有病人均是牛鏈球菌菌血症感染的病人，僅有兩例病例從腦脊液中分離到細菌，4名病人表現為發熱。8名病人之中有6名為足月兒而其他2名是早產兒。6名病人在生後7天內出現症狀，而2名病人則分別於出生後的第23天及46天出現臨床症狀。所有病人均接受了至少7天的靜脈注射抗生素治療後，得到治愈而沒有死亡。到目前為止，所有病人的生長發育均正常。結論：在我們這組病例中，發熱是最為常見的臨床表現，呼吸窘迫較為常見，與既往報導不同的是胃腸道的功能紊亂卻並不常見。進一步的研究將有助醫護人員更深入瞭解此種兒童細菌的感染。