Septicemia due to Aeromonas hydrophila: Clinical and Immunologic Aspects

Over a 32-month period, nine patients treated for neoplastic disease at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center developed septicemia caused by Aeromonas hydrophila. Five patients had skin lesions associated with onset of infection; in two patients these lesions were indistinguishable from ecthyma gangrenosum, the skin lesion classically associated with infection due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Invitro studies indicate that, like P. aeruginosa, invasive strains of A. hydrophila are resistant to the bactericidal action of normal serum. Recovery from infection was associated with high titers of serum opsonins against A. hydrophila; and fatal infection, with negligible opsonizing activity. A. hydrophila is an increasing cause of nosocomial septicemia in immunologically compromised hosts, and the clinical features of A. hydrophila septicemia resemble those of systemic P. aeruginosa infection.