In the period studied, six cases of bacteremia in patients > 15 years and one case of vascular infection associated with different species of the genus Campylobacter were identified.
The information available did not allow access to data on the eating habits of patients, laboratory alterations or response to antimicrobial therapy.
The isolates were not subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing.
There was a concentration of cases in the second half of the 25-year period of this series (5/7; 71.4%) and a grouping of bacteremia in the hottest months of the year (5 of 7; 71.4%).
In addition, the seven patients had several comorbidities, except for common colds and the predominance of C. fetus as the agent of their clinical picture.
Four patients were male and the mean age was 32.4 years (range 19-63 years).
Diarrhoea and fever, present in five of seven patients, were the most frequent clinical manifestations.
Four of seven patients had hypotension (57.1%) and two patients had septic shock (28.6%).
One woman presented with fever and arthralgia, another with fever and arthritis of the liver and encephalopathy, and one with febrile neutropenia and diarrhea.
Abdominal pain was infrequent in this series.
The patient without bacteremia presented thrombosis of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, with pain for 15 days, without fever, hypotension or diarrhea (case 7).
During surgery, a perivascular inflammatory zone was identified and sent for culture.
Treatment and evolution.
Six of the seven patients (85.7%) received antimicrobial treatment.
However, in only two of them the therapeutic scheme was adapted after knowing the etiology.
Macrolides were added in both cases (cases 2 and 3), obtaining a favorable response.
In two other patients, treatment was directed to the suspicion of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (case 6) and to a postoperative fever (patient with thrombosed aneurysm) (case 7).
Finally, two other patients died a few days after admission without knowing the etiologic agent, so they received a treatment scheme according to their clinical presentation at admission (cases 4 and 5).
The patient who did not receive treatment had a favorable outcome (case 1).
Resolution was favourable in five out of seven cases.4%).
The two patients who presented shock died (28.6%), C. fetus was isolated.
Campylobacter emergency as diarrhea agent
The percentage of positive coprocultives to Campylobacter spp. increased progressively in our institution between the years 2004 and 2010, with an approximate four-fold increase (from < 0.5% to > 0.05 percent difference test).
Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.89.
