Granulomas of the Skin Due toMycobacterium balneiafter Abrasions from a Fish Tank

FOR about twenty years the literature has contained occasional reports of granulomatous skin lesions that have followed abrasions acquired in certain swimming pools.1 2 3 4 Some of these reports were of large outbreaks involving many patients, the largest occurring in Colorado during the summer of 1959.5 , 6 Some 300 patients were investigated in this epidemic. The etiologic agent, an acid-fast organism named Mycobacterium balnei, was identified by Linell and Norden7 and recorded in 1954. The condition has been aptly named "swimming-pool granuloma."Acid-fast organisms have previously been isolated from diseased fish. In 1942 Baker and Hagan8 found Myco. platypoecilus in tropical fresh-water . . .