Staphylococcus Albus Septicemia Following Nephrolithotomy

Mortality with hemolytic Staphylococcus albus septicemia occurs in about 90 per cent of cases. We have not previously seen a patient survive with this type of infection. When the skin is covered with a myriad of pustules they reflect the fulminating state of the infection in every organ in the body. In a previously unreported personal case several years ago following litholopaxy death ensued although a blood sulfathiazole level of 7.5 mg. was maintained. The skin of the patient was studded with minute white pustules and at postmortem examination small collections of pus, the result of infected emboli, were found throughout the body. The present patient recovered with penicillin after having been resistant to sulfadiazine. Recovery occurred in spite of hundreds of these tiny pustules in the skin, accompanied by bilateral bronchopneumonia, toxic myocarditis, toxic hepatitis, acute glomerulonephritis and renal abscess. Some authors believe that a