Clostridioides difficile infection: history, epidemiology, risk factors, prevention, clinical manifestations, treatment, and future options

SUMMARYClostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is one of the major issues in nosocomial infections. This bacterium is constantly evolving and poses complex challenges for clinicians, often encountered in real-life scenarios. In the face of CDI, we are increasingly equipped with new therapeutic strategies, such as monoclonal antibodies and live biotherapeutic products, which need to be thoroughly understood to fully harness their benefits. Moreover, interesting options are currently under study for the future, including bacteriophages, vaccines, and antibiotic inhibitors. Surveillance and prevention strategies continue to play a pivotal role in limiting the spread of the infection. In this review, we aim to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of epidemiological aspects, predisposing factors, clinical manifestations, diagnostic tools, and current and future prophylactic and therapeutic options for C. difficile infection.

Tubo-ovarian abscess caused by Clostridioides difficile after eight months of surgery: Case report and review of extraintestinal abdominal abscess cases

We present a case of tubo-ovarian abscess (TOA) caused by Clostridioides difficile (CD) in a 43-year-old female. Despite lacking a history of sexually transmitted diseases, the patient had undergone paraovarian cystectomy nine months before admission. Transvaginal ultrasonography performed eight months post-surgery revealed left ovarian enlargement, accompanied by subsequent lower abdominal pain and fever exceeding 38 °C. As oral antibiotic treatment was ineffective, the patient was admitted to our hospital. Computed tomography upon admission revealed a massive TOA. Surgical drainage of the abscess was performed, and CD was identified in the culture from the pus. The TOA was treated with a three-month course of metronidazole and oral amoxicillin/clavulanic acid. While CD is commonly associated with colitis, extraintestinal manifestations are exceptionally rare. This case represents the inaugural report of TOA resulting from CD. A literature review on abdominal and pelvic CD abscesses found that patients undergoing surgical drainage had a favorable prognosis. Therefore, surgical intervention plays an important role in the management of CD abscesses.

Clostridioides difficile recovered in pleural fluid: Contamination or infection? A case report of a proven empyema and a literature review

INTRODUCTION

Pleural empyema is an infrequent manifestation of extraintestinal Clostridioidesdifficile infection, with just eight cases reported in literature.

METHODS

We report a new case in a 70-year-old male without comorbidities or evidence of concomitant gastrointestinal disease, and review the previous cases reported in the literature.

RESULTS

The isolate was susceptible to all antimicrobial tested and was negative for A+B toxins. The patient fully recovered after drainages and antimicrobial therapy with amoxicillin-clavulanate and doxycycline.

CONCLUSION

As in the previously reported cases, aspiration was the most plausible hypothesis of mechanism of infection in our patient. Empyema by Clostridioidesdifficile is a diagnostic challenge, since it is necessary to rule out that the isolation of this microorganism in pleural fluid is not a contamination. Furthermore, more evidence is needed for its treatment since data regarding this entity are still scarce.

Early diagnosis of monomicrobial Clostridioides difficile bacteremia in a patient without colitis

Bacteremia is a rare finding among Clostridioides difficile infections. We describe a case of a 67-year-old man with resected colorectal cancer with colostomy who presented with small bowel obstruction and was admitted for lysis of adhesions. On day 8 of admission, he developed leukocytosis and raised inflammatory markers with isolation of Gram-positive bacilli in several blood cultures, which was presumptively identified through blood culture pelleting and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) as C. difficile. The diagnosis was confirmed with conventional culture and reference lab identification and the patient demonstrated clinical response with parenteral then oral vancomycin that briefly worsened when therapy was switched to parenteral metronidazole and then improved once oral vancomycin was resumed. Our case was notable in that the combination of pelleting and MALDI-TOF offered early diagnosis in this patient whose positive blood cultures were suspicious for contamination and in whom there was an absence of diarrheal illness or features of colitis on abdominal imaging. Early diagnosis is critical for the timely initiation of therapy, implementation of infection prevention and control measures and in selection of appropriate therapy for antimicrobial stewardship.

Bezlotoxumab prevents extraintestinal organ damage induced by Clostridioides difficile infection

Clostridioides difficile is the most common cause of infectious antibiotic-associated diarrhea, with disease mediated by two major toxins TcdA and TcdB. In severe cases, systemic disease complications may arise, resulting in fatal disease. Systemic disease in animal models has been described, with thymic damage an observable consequence of severe disease in mice. Using a mouse model of C. difficile infection, we examined this disease phenotype, focussing on the thymus and serum markers of systemic disease. The efficacy of bezlotoxumab, a monoclonal TcdB therapeutic, to prevent toxin mediated systemic disease complications was also examined. C. difficile infection causes toxin-dependent thymic damage and CD4⁺CD8⁺ thymocyte depletion in mice. These systemic complications coincide with changes in biochemical markers of liver and kidney function, including increased serum urea and creatinine, and hypoglycemia. Administration of bezlotoxumab during C. difficile infection prevents systemic disease and thymic atrophy, without blocking gut damage, suggesting the leakage of gut contents into circulation may influence systemic disease. As the thymus has such a crucial role in T cell production and immune system development, these findings may have important implications in relapse of C. difficile disease and impaired immunity during C. difficile infection. The prevention of thymic atrophy and reduced systemic response following bezlotoxumab treatment, without altering colonic damage, highlights the importance of systemic disease in C. difficile infection, and provides new insights into the mechanism of action for this therapeutic.Abbreviations: Acute kidney injury (AKI); Alanine Transaminase (ALT); Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST); C. difficile infection (CDI); chronic kidney disease (CKD); combined repetitive oligo-peptides (CROPS); cardiovascular disease (CVD); Double positive (DP); hematoxylin and eosin (H&E); immunohistochemical (IHC); multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS); phosphate buffered saline (PBS); standard error of the mean (SEM); surface layer proteins (SLP); Single positive (SP); wild-type (WT).

Polymicrobial bacteraemia with Clostridioides difficile and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in an elderly man following antibiotic use

Clostridioides difficile is a micro-organism well known to cause pseudomembranous colitis with rare extraintestinal manifestations. We present the case of an elderly male with multiple comorbidities who presented with acute onset of fever/chills and hypotension, found to have polymicrobial bacteraemia with C. difficile and Pseudomonas aeruginosa He was treated with piperacillin/tazobactam for P. aeruginosa bacteraemia, oral vancomycin for C. difficile colitis and intravenous, followed by oral metronidazole for C. difficile bacteraemia. Pseudomonas cleared after 1 day, and Clostridioides cleared after 4 days. Following an initial septic presentation, he responded appropriately to antimicrobial therapy and did well in follow-up.

Risk factors of first recurrence of Clostridioides difficile infection

OBJECTIVES

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) often recurs. Approximately 25% of patients have recurrences after the initial treatment, and patients who have relapsed once are more likely to relapse. We aimed to identify the risk factors for initial CDI recurrence.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective survey of patient backgrounds and treatment-related factors. Risk factors were analyzed using single and multiple logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS

A total of 134 patients were included in the study. Prophylactic probiotic use and nasogastric tube feeding were independent risk factors for the initial recurrence of CDI. Patients using prophylactic probiotics had significantly higher recurrence rates than those not using prophylactic probiotics.

CONCLUSION

Prophylactic probiotic use and nasogastric tube placement may be risk factors for the initial recurrence of CDI. It is noteworthy that CDI that occurs during the use of prophylactic probiotics may be prone to recurrence.

An Atypical Case of Monomicrobial Clostridioides difficile Septicemia With No Gastrointestinal Manifestations

An uncommon case of monomicrobial Clostridioides difficile septicemia in a 63-year-old man was reported in Zhejiang, China. Once diagnosed, vancomycin treatment cleared the infections. The patient had no remarkable medical history, and the inspection showed no overt gastrointestinal symptoms, though C. difficile was detected in his stool samples. However, we later defined that the C. difficile strain isolated from the blood sample was different from the one isolated from his stool using the whole genome sequencing analysis. By retrospective analysis of his medical record, we noticed that the man had a recent tooth extraction thus the bacterium may have invaded through the root canal. Therefore, we suggest that oral C. difficile colonization may be a potential risk factor for severe C. difficile septicemia, which could be clinically alarming.

A Case Report and Review of the Literature: Reactive Arthritis Caused by Clostridioides difficile ribotype 027

With an annual incidence of 250-300 per 100,000 inhabitants, reactive arthritis is not uncommon. However, the fact that Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) can also lead to this complication is largely unknown. We report on a 69-years-old man who developed reactive arthritis of his right knee joint one week after antibiotic-associated diarrhea with evidence of C. difficile of the hypervirulent ribotype 027. His female partner also became infected with C. difficile ribotype 027, but did not develop reactive arthritis. The further investigation showed that the patient - in contrast to his partner - was HLA-B27 positive and had strong antibody levels against C. difficile. The case history together with the review of 45 other cases described so far shows that C. difficile can also lead to reactive arthritis. C. difficile-associated reactive arthritis (CDARA) is characterized by the fact that patients suffer from diarrhea or colitis after taking antibiotics, toxigenic C. difficile or only the toxins are detectable in the stool and there are no other explanations for the arthritis and diarrhea.

Polymicrobial Clostridioides difficile lung empyema

Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile is a well-known cause of enteritis and antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Extraintestinal C. difficile infection is uncommon, with most extraintestinal infections involving the intra-abdominal cavity and anatomic structures adjacent to the colon. Empyema secondary to C. difficile is especially rare, with only a handful of cases reported in the medical literature. A standard antibiotic treatment regimen for C. difficile empyema does not currently exist, and data chronicling successful treatment is limited. We present the case of an 80-year-old woman with a polymicrobial C. difficile empyema who was successfully treated with multiple chest tube insertions and intravenous vancomycin.

Large Clostridial Toxins: Mechanisms and Roles in Disease

Large clostridial toxins (LCTs) are a family of bacterial exotoxins that infiltrate and destroy target cells. Members of the LCT family include Clostridioides difficile toxins TcdA and TcdB, Paeniclostridium sordellii toxins TcsL and TcsH, Clostridium novyi toxin TcnA, and Clostridium perfringens toxin TpeL. Since the 19th century, LCT-secreting bacteria have been isolated from the blood, organs, and wounds of diseased individuals, and LCTs have been implicated as the primary virulence factors in a variety of infections, including C. difficile infection and some cases of wound-associated gas gangrene. Clostridia express and secrete LCTs in response to various physiological signals. LCTs invade host cells by binding specific cell surface receptors, ultimately leading to internalization into acidified vesicles. Acidic pH promotes conformational changes within LCTs, which culminates in translocation of the N-terminal glycosyltransferase and cysteine protease domain across the endosomal membrane and into the cytosol, leading first to cytopathic effects and later to cytotoxic effects. The focus of this review is on the role of LCTs in infection and disease, the mechanism of LCT intoxication, with emphasis on recent structural work and toxin subtyping analysis, and the genomic discovery and characterization of LCT homologues. We provide a comprehensive review of these topics and offer our perspective on emerging questions and future research directions for this enigmatic family of toxins.

Advances and required improvements in methods to diagnosing Clostridioides difficile infections in the healthcare setting

INTRODUCTION

Clostrididioides difficile is associated with adverse clinical outcomes and increased morbidity, mortality, length of hospital stay, and health-care costs.Areas Covered: We searched relevant papers in PubMed for the last 10 years. In major papers, we scanned the bibliographies to ensure that important articles were included. This review addresses the evolving epidemiology of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) and discusses novel methods/approaches for improving the diagnosis of this important disease.

EXPERT OPINION

No single diagnostic test to date has demonstrated optimum sensitivity and specificity for detection of CDI. Many institutions have developed multi-step algorithms consistent with guidelines established by various professional societies. Some institutions have successfully tried to improve the pretest probability of molecular assays by implementing appropriate sample rejection criteria and establishing best practice alerts at the time of electronic order entry. Others have established PCR cycle threshold cutoffs to attempt to differentiate symptomatic patients from asymptomatic carriers or to make predictions about severity of disease with variable success. As research advances our understanding of C. difficile pathogenesis and pathophysiology, more information on CDI specific biomarkers is emerging. Finally, assessments of the microbiome and metabolome may expand the diagnostic armamentarium with advances in mass spectrometry and sequencing technologies.

Clostridioides difficile from intracardiac vegetation

Extracolonic manifestations by Clostridioides difficile are uncommon. Here, we report a case of monomicrobial C. difficile intracardiac vegetation in a 11-year-old girl with a predisposed heart disease who responded well to the treatment. C. difficile has been isolated from a variety of specimens outside the intestinal tract and is not always associated with gastrointestinal symptoms.

Extraintestinal Clostridioides difficile infection: Septic arthritis 12 months after colitis

A 79-year-old male was diagnosed with a total knee prosthetic infection. He had a history of an episode of Clostridioides difficile-associated diarrhoea a year ago. Clostridioides difficile was isolated from the joint fluid and intraoperative tissue samples, and ribotyping demonstrated that the strain was the same that had caused the diarrheic episode, an infrequent ribotype (RT534). The genetic relatedness suggests that the initial infection occurred during that hospitalization, resulting in a chronic prosthetic infection. We have carried out an extensive literature review of all the cases reported in scientific databases of Clostridioides difficile infections with extraintestinal presentation and their relationship with previous colitis.

Clostridium difficile appendicitis in an immunocompromised patient: a case report and review of the literature

Background

Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is a common cause of infectious colitis in individuals with prior antibiotic or hospital exposure. Extraintestinal manifestations of C. difficile infections, however, are rare. Here we present a case of C. difficile appendicitis in an immunocompromised patient.

Case presentation

A 53-year-old Caucasian male presented to the emergency room for two days of lower abdominal pain associated with nausea and subjective fevers. He otherwise denied having diarrhea or hematochezia. He did not have any recent hospitalizations, nursing home stays, or antibiotic exposure. His past medical history was notable for stage III tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma for which he was status post tonsillectomy, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy (cisplatin 4 days prior to presentation). He was afebrile with tenderness to palpation in the bilateral lower quadrants, right greater than left. His white blood cell (WBC) count was 15.6 × 10³ cells/μL. Computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen and pelvis showed marked edema and inflammation of the cecum and ascending colon as well as an enlarged appendix with surrounding inflammatory changes with a small amount of free fluid in the right paracolic gutter. He was treated non-surgically with antibiotics. He did not clinically improve and on hospital day 3, he developed diarrhea for which C. difficile stool polymerase chain reaction was sent. Repeat CT of the abdomen and pelvis was performed which showed progression to pan-colitis and persistent appendicitis. C. difficile testing later resulted positive, for which oral vancomycin was started. The patient markedly improved with medical management alone and was subsequently discharged on oral vancomycin.

Conclusions

Our case highlights the importance of maintaining a high index of suspicion for C. difficile in a patient presenting with both appendicitis and colitis, with prompt diagnosis and treatment being essential.

Intraincisional medical grade honey decreases the prevalence of incisional infection in horses undergoing colic surgery: A prospective randomised controlled study

BACKGROUND

Medical grade honey has previously been described as a prophylactic treatment for wounds. Local prophylactic treatment may be valuable in preventing post-operative incisional infections in horses undergoing colic surgery but has not been evaluated.

OBJECTIVES

To establish whether medical grade honey gel, applied on the linea alba intraoperatively, decreases the prevalence of incisional infections in horses undergoing colic surgery with no associated adverse effects.

STUDY DESIGN

Prospective blinded randomised controlled clinical study.

METHODS

Horses older than 4 months that underwent colic surgery between May 2017 and December 2018 and survived for >2 weeks were included in the study. Horses were allocated 1:1 to treatment or control by block randomisation. In the treatment group, following closure of the linea alba, medical grade honey gel (L-Mesitran Soft^® ) was placed in the incision followed by apposition of subcutaneous tissue and skin. Information regarding the incision and post-operative complications was obtained at five time points (24 hours, 48 hours, 5 days, 14 days and 3 months).

RESULTS

Eighty-nine horses were included in the study. No adverse effects associated with treatment were observed. Horses in the treatment group had a lower rate of incisional infection compared with the control group (8.2% vs. 32.5%, P = .02). The protective effect of MGH had a calculated adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 0.2 (95% CI:0.07-0.8, P = .03). The number of patients required to receive treatment to prevent one case of incisional infection (NNEB) was 4.7. Risk factors associated with infection included: younger age (OR = 27, 95% CI: 2.3 to 306, P = .008) and diarrhoea 48 hours post-operatively (OR = 20, 95% CI: 1.5 to 277, P = .02).

MAIN LIMITATIONS

Follow-up was performed by different veterinary surgeons, hence not completely uniform.

CONCLUSION

Local prophylactic treatment with medical grade honey gel in the abdominal incision during surgery is safe and may significantly decrease the prevalence of incisional infections in horses undergoing colic surgery.

Extra-Intestinal Effects of C. difficile Toxin A and B: An In Vivo Study Using the Zebrafish Embryo Model

C.difficile infection (CDI) is not a merely “gut-confined” disease as toxemia could drive the development of CDI-related extra-intestinal effects. These effects could explain the high CDI-associated mortality, not just justified by diarrhea and dehydration. Here, the extra-intestinal effects of toxin A (TcdA) and B (TcdB) produced by C. difficile have been studied in vivo using the zebrafish embryo model. Noteworthy, protective properties of human serum albumin (HSA) towards toxins-induced extra-intestinal effects were also addressed. Zebrafish embryos were treated with TcdA, TcdB and/or HSA at 24 h post-fertilization. Embryos were analyzed for 48 h after treatment to check vital signs and morphological changes. Markers related to cardio-vascular damage and inflammation were evaluated by Real-Time quantitative PCR and/or western blotting. Both toxins induced cardiovascular damage in zebrafish embryos by different mechanisms: (i) direct toxicity (i.e., pericardial edema, cardiac chambers enlargement, endothelial alteration); (ii) increased hormonal production and release (i.e., atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP)), (iii) alteration of the vascular system through the increase of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) levels, as well as of its receptors, (iv) pro-inflammatory response through high cytokines production (i.e., CXCL8, IL1B, IL6 and TNFα) and (v) cell-mediated damage due to the increase in neutrophils number. In addition to cardiovascular damage, we observe skin alteration and inflammation. Finally, our data indicate a protective effect of HSA toward the toxins induced extra-intestinal effects. Together, our findings can serve as a starting point for humans’ studies to substantiate and understand the extra-intestinal effects observed in CDI patients.

Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile Pacemaker Infection

Clostridioides difficile is the leading cause of antibiotic-associated nosocomial diarrhea, but extra-intestinal manifestations are rare. We describe the first documented case of bacteraemia with pacemaker pocket and lead infection with the toxigenic C. difficile ribotype 014 with a lack of abdominal symptoms. The patient underwent pacemaker extraction and treatment with intravenous and oral vancomycin. Genotyping and molecular subtyping revealed clonality between pacemaker and intestinal isolates. This case illustrates the risk of intravascular device infections due to C. difficile. Even asymptomatic C. difficile colonization might pose a risk for prosthetic material infection.

Clinical characteristics and prognostic factors of extraintestinal infection caused by Clostridioides difficile: analysis of 60 consecutive cases

Data regarding extraintestinal Clostridioides difficile infections (ECDIs) remain scarce and anecdotal. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to investigate characteristics and prognostic factors in patients with ECDI. From January 1997 through December 2018, 60 patients were enrolled and divided into three groups as follows: group A (gastrointestinal [GI] disruption caused by malignancy, n = 13); group B (GI disruption from causes other than malignancy, n = 25); group C (no GI disruption, n = 22). GI disruption was defined as compromised integrity of the GI tract caused by abdominal surgery, perforation, malignancy, enterocolitis, or bleeding. The incidence of ECDI was 2.53 per 100,000 admissions. The most common specimens yielded C. difficile were blood (36.7%), peritoneal fluid (20.0%), and abscesses (16.7%). Six patients (10.0%) had confirmed C. difficile enterocolitis, and 36 patients (60.0%) had a polymicrobial infection. C. difficile bacteremia was significantly more common in group A patients than those in groups B or C (53.8% vs. 48.0% vs. 13.6%, p = 0.02), as was the 30-day mortality rate (69.2% vs. 12.0% vs. 18.2%, respectively; p < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, group A (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 17.32; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.96-101.21; p = 0.002) and an age of > 65 years (aOR, 7.09; 95% CI, 1.31-38.45; p = 0.02) were independent risk factors for 30-day mortality. ECDI was uncommonly associated with C. difficile enterocolitis. Two factors, GI disruption caused by malignancy, and old age, were associated with significantly poorer short-term outcomes.

Endovascular Intervention of a Mycotic Pseudoaneurysm of Accessory Left Hepatic Artery Arising from the Left Gastric Artery Presenting Secondary to Clostridium difficile Colitis: A Case Report

Hepatic artery aneurysms have an estimated incidence of approximately 0.002%, of which one half are pseudoaneurysms (PsAs). These typically occur following trauma or liver transplant and are often asymptomatic. An uncommon pathology, mycotic aneurysms or PsAs are those that result as a consequence of infections. The danger in mycotic processes stems from their complications of systemic seeding of infection, rupture, and possible exsanguination. This case reports a mycotic PsA that was found in an accessory left hepatic artery (aLHA) branching from the left gastric artery (LGA). The patient presented with recurrent Clostridium difficile colitis with perforation and was later found to have a left upper quadrant vascular lesion during repeat imaging after failing to progress in their clinical course. After multidisciplinary meetings with vascular surgery and interventional radiology, the patient eventually underwent endovascular coil embolization. This is the first documented case of a mycotic PsA secondary to recurrent C. difficile colitis located in an aLHA branching from the LGA.

Extraintestinal Clostridioides difficile Infections: Epidemiology in a University Hospital in Hungary and Review of the Literature

Extraintestinal manifestations of Clostridioides difficile infections (CDIs) are very uncommon, and according to the literature, poor outcomes and a high mortality have been observed among affected individuals. The objective of this study was to investigate the incidence rate of extraintestinal infections caused by C. difficile (ECD) in a tertiary-care university hospital in Hungary. During a 10-year study period, the microbiology laboratory isolated 4129 individual strains of C. difficile; among these, the majority were either from diarrheal fecal samples or from colonic material and only n = 24 (0.58%) were from extraintestinal sources. The 24 extraintestinal C. difficile isolates were recovered from 22 patients (female-to-male ratio: 1, average age: 55.4 years). The isolates in n = 8 patients were obtained from abdominal infections, e.g., appendicitis, rectal abscess or Crohn’s disease. These extraintestinal cases occurred without concomitant diarrhea. In all, but two cases C. difficile was obtained as a part of a polymicrobial flora. Our isolates were frequently toxigenic and mostly belonged to PCR ribotype 027. Resistance to metronidazole, vancomycin, clindamycin and rifampin were 0%, 0%, 20.5% and 9.7%, respectively. The increasing amount of reports of C. difficile extraintestinal infections should be noted, as these infections are characterized by a poor outcome and high mortality rate.

Clostridium difficile Infection of a Total Hip Arthroplasty: Case Report and Review of the Literature

CASE

We describe the case of an 85-year-old woman who presented with worsening right hip pain after a conversion hip replacement. Subsequent imaging demonstrated a gas-containing collection in the lateral thigh. She was taken to the operating room for irrigation and debridement, where intraoperative cultures returned positive for Clostridium difficile. Surgical management was followed by a prolonged course of antibiotics.

CONCLUSIONS

Clostridium difficile as the etiology of infection in a conversion arthroplasty is exceedingly rare. Orthopaedic surgeons and infectious disease specialists should consider C. diff as a potential cause of infection in conversion hip arthroplasty because management options will need to be tailored.

Extraintestinal Clostridium difficile infection: Scrotal abscess

Clostridium difficile infection is one of the most common causes of healthcare-associated morbidity and mortality. ExtraintestinalC. difficile infection is extremely rare; though a variety of infections involving different organs have been reported. We report the first case of scrotal abscess due toC. difficile in an 84 year old male following left inguinal herniorrhaphy. Patient underwent surgical drainage of scrotal abscess and was successfully treated with culture directed antibiotic therapy.

Multi-focal Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile osteomyelitis in a patient with sickle cell anemia: case presentation and literature review

Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile infection manifests as intestinal infections, namely pseudomembranous colitis. The occurrence of extra-intestinal disease is thought to be rare with a rate of 1.08% of 2034 isolates of C. difficile and an incidence of 4/100,000 admissions. C. difficile had been rarely associated with osteomyelitis. Here, we report the occurrence of C. difficile osteomyelitiin a patient with sickle cell disease. The patient had multiple surgeries and a prolonged antimicrobial therapy to achieve a cure. The patient had C. difficile infection of native bone and of a prosthetic joint. The patient received prolonged therapy with amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and metronidazole and she remained free of C. difficile infection for 3 years off antibiotics.

Enterotoxic Clostridia: Clostridioides difficile Infections

Clostridioides difficile is a Gram-positive, anaerobic, spore forming pathogen of both humans and animals and is the most common identifiable infectious agent of nosocomial antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Infection can occur following the ingestion and germination of spores, often concurrently with a disruption to the gastrointestinal microbiota, with the resulting disease presenting as a spectrum, ranging from mild and self-limiting diarrhea to severe diarrhea that may progress to life-threating syndromes that include toxic megacolon and pseudomembranous colitis. Disease is induced through the activity of the C. difficile toxins TcdA and TcdB, both of which disrupt the Rho family of GTPases in host cells, causing cell rounding and death and leading to fluid loss and diarrhea. These toxins, despite their functional and structural similarity, do not contribute to disease equally. C. difficile infection (CDI) is made more complex by a high level of strain diversity and the emergence of epidemic strains, including ribotype 027-strains which induce more severe disease in patients. With the changing epidemiology of CDI, our understanding of C. difficile disease, diagnosis, and pathogenesis continues to evolve. This article provides an overview of the current diagnostic tests available for CDI, strain typing, the major toxins C. difficile produces and their mode of action, the host immune response to each toxin and during infection, animal models of disease, and the current treatment and prevention strategies for CDI.

Clostridium difficile Causing Empyema

Extraintestinal Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is extremely uncommon. High mortality and poor outcomes have been observed among individuals with this rare medical condition. Empyema is one of the extraintestinal manifestations of CDI. Possible mechanisms to develop this parapneumonic effusion are aspiration and contamination of the chest tube. We present a 42-year-old Hispanic male with C. difficile empyema without any prior history of CDI.

Secondary bacterial peritonitis and pelvic abscess due to Clostridium difficile

A 70-year-old man with a history of hepatic cirrhosis presented with abdominal discomfort and distention. Physical examination revealed abdominal distention, positive fluid wave and abdominal tenderness. Due to concerns for spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP), paracentesis was performed. Fluid analysis revealed 5371 total nucleated cells with 48% neutrophils. Ceftriaxone was then initiated for the treatment of SBP. Bacterial cultures of the fluid, however, grew Clostridium difficile Therefore, metronidazole was added. An abdominal ultrasound revealed a pelvic fluid collection that was suspicious for an abscess on an abdominal CT scan. The patient underwent CT-guided drain placement into the pelvic fluid collection. The fluid aspirate was consistent with an abscess. However, cultures were negative in the setting of ongoing antibiotic therapy. The patient was treated with a 10-day course of ceftriaxone and metronidazole and was discharged home with outpatient follow-up.

A repeat offender: Recurrent extraintestinal Clostridium difficile infection following fecal microbiota transplantation

Extraintestinal infection with Clostridium difficile has been reported but remains uncommon. Treatment of this unusual complication is complex given the limitations of current therapeutic options. Here we report a novel case of recurrent extraintestinal C. difficile infection that occurred following fecal microbiota transplantation. Using whole genome sequencing, we confirmed recrudescence rather than reinfection was responsible. The patient ultimately responded to prolonged, targeted antimicrobial therapy informed by susceptibility testing.

Recurrent bacteremia and liver abscess caused by Clostridium difficile: A case report

RATIONALE

Clostridium difficile bacteremia (CDB) and liver abscess is a quite rare presentation of C. difficile infection.

PATIENTS CONCERNS

A 74-year-old male with primary biliary cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) developed a high fever on post-TACE day 14. Intravenous ceftriaxone and following meropenem were administered, however, his clinical response was poor. On post-TACE day 24, 2 sets of blood culture were taken due to elevation of C-reactive protein levels.

DIAGNOSIS

CDB, caused by bacterial translocation.

INTERVENTIONS

Intravenous vancomycin and oral metronidazole were administered for two weeks.

OUTCOMES

One month after recurrent CDB, the patient was re-admitted due to a liver abscess at the same site of TACE. C. difficile was isolated from the liver abscess and the patient received 6 weeks of oral metronidazole treatment. CDB and liver abscess have not recurred since completion of antibiotic treatment.

LESSONS

The spore-forming ability of C. difficile may contributed to the recurrent CDB episodes and liver abscess formation in necrotic liver tissue following TACE, and long-term metronidazole therapy was considered to be effective to C. difficile liver abscess.

Invading beyond bounds: extraintestinal Clostridium difficile infection leading to pancreatic and liver abscesses

Clostridium difficile has become a common healthcare-associated infection over the past few years and gained more attention. C. difficile was estimated to cause almost half a million infections in USA in 2011 and 29 000 died within 30 days of the initial diagnosis. Although colitis due to C. difficile is the most common presentation, there have been reported cases of extraintestinal infections. As per our review of literature, this is the third reported case of liver abscess due to the organism.

Acute Appendicitis: An Extracolonic Manifestation of Clostridium difficile Colitis

The current report is the case of a 30-year-old male patient who presented with symptomatology suggestive of appendicitis. However, careful history-taking and laboratory tests led to the diagnosis of Clostridium difficile colitis, resulting in successful nonsurgical management of this patient. Although both appendicitis and C. difficile colitis are common conditions, they are rarely diagnosed concurrently. This is reflected by paucity of literature describing this manifestation. Given this current presentation, the authors contend that the manifestation of extracolonic colitis within the appendix is possibly underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed as an acute appendicitis and thus potentially results in unnecessary surgical intervention. This report reminds physicians to consider the medical approach to managing acute appendicitis given the possibility of underlying C. difficile colitis as the causative factor.

Clostridium difficile Infection

Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic, Gram-positive, spore-forming, toxin-secreting bacillus that has long been recognized to be the most common etiologic pathogen of antibiotic-associated diarrhea. C. difficile infection (CDI) is now the most common cause of health care-associated infections in the United States and accounts for 12% of these infections (Magill SS et al., N Engl J Med370:1198-1208, 2014). Among emerging pathogens of public health importance in the United States, CDI has the highest population-based incidence, estimated at 147 per 100,000 (Lessa FC et al., N Engl J Med372:825-834, 2015). In a report on antimicrobial resistance, C. difficile has been categorized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of three "urgent" threats (http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/threat-report-2013/). Although C. difficile was first described in the late 1970s, the past decade has seen the emergence of hypertoxigenic strains that have caused increased morbidity and mortality worldwide. Pathogenic strains, host susceptibility, and other regional factors vary and may influence the clinical manifestation and approach to intervention. In this article, we describe the global epidemiology of CDI featuring the different strains in circulation outside of North America and Europe where strain NAP1/027/BI/III had originally gained prominence. The elderly population in health care settings has been disproportionately affected, but emergence of CDI in children and healthy young adults in community settings has, likewise, been reported. New approaches in management, including fecal microbiota transplantation, are discussed.

Extraintestinal Clostridium difficile infection due to a ribotype different from that isolated from the feces of the patient: A case report

Extraintestinal infections due to Clostridium difficile are uncommon. When such infections occur, extraintestinal C. difficile isolates are usually identical to fecal isolates. We present a rare case of a large postoperative abscess caused by C. difficile infection, in which different C. difficile strains were isolated from the abscess and from feces of the patient. An 82-year-old woman with cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa developed pain, skin ulcers, and extensive necrosis of the right leg. Above-knee amputation was performed without stopping antiplatelet therapy, leading to postoperative hematoma. Six weeks after surgery, a large femoral abscess was detected and C. difficile was isolated. Repeat amputation of the thigh was required to remove the abscess. C. difficile was also cultured from feces despite the lack of intestinal symptoms. However, genetic analysis confirmed that the C. difficile isolates from the abscess and feces were different strains. Thus, C. difficile can cause postoperative infection of a hematoma and the extraintestinal and fecal C. difficile isolates are not necessarily identical in the same patient.

Clostridium difficile extraintestinal abscess: a rare complication

Extraintestinal Clostridium difficile is rare. A 74-year-old man with a history of ulcerative colitis presented after a fall. Trauma work-up showed liver cirrhosis. Two days later he developed abdominal pain, distension, diarrhoea and leucocytosis. Stool tested positive for C. difficile CT abdomen showed pancolitis with toxic megacolon. Total abdominal colectomy and ileostomy with a rectal stump was performed. He was discharged, but was readmitted with sepsis. CT abdomen showed a 10.4×7.2 cm fluid collection in the pelvis. C. difficile stool was negative. CT-guided abscess drainage grew C. difficile Barium enema was negative for communication from the rectal stump to the abscess. The patient was treated with metronidazole for 2 weeks. In summary, extraintestinal C. difficile can develop from recent antibiotics use, gastrointestinal surgery and microperforations from toxic megacolon. We recommend abscess drainage, concomitant treatment with metronidazole and or vancomycin, and reimaging of abscess location 2-4 weeks after cessation of antibiotics.

Clostridium difficile bacteremia: Report of two cases in French hospitals and comprehensive review of the literature

We report two cases of bacteremia due to Clostridium difficile from two French hospitals. The first patient with previously diagnosed rectal carcinoma underwent courses of chemotherapy, and antimicrobial treatment, and survived the C. difficile bacteremia. The second patient with colon perforation and newly diagnosed lung cancer underwent antimicrobial treatment in an ICU but died shortly after the episode of C. difficile bacteremia. A review of the literature allowed the identification of 137 cases of bacteremia between July 1962 and November 2016. Advanced age, gastro-intestinal disruption, severe underlying diseases and antimicrobial exposure were the major risk factors for C. difficile bacteremia. Antimicrobial therapy was primarily based on metronidazole and/or vancomycin. The crude mortality rate was 35% (21/60).

Clostridium innocuum is a significant vancomycin-resistant pathogen for extraintestinal clostridial infection

OBJECTIVES

Extra-intestinal clostridial infection (EICI) is rare but can be fatal. Traditional phenotypic methods can only assign many of the Clostridium species to the genus level.

METHODS

A total of 376 non-repetitive Clostridium isolates from sterile sites were collected and subjected to matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) Biotyper analysis and 16S rRNA sequencing. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined, and clinical characteristics of the patients were assessed. Clostridium innocuum isolates were characterized by genome sequencing and genotyping. We used molecular and cellular methods to explore the virulence and resistance mechanisms of C.innocuum.

RESULTS

Clostridium innocuum was the second most common species to cause EICI, only next to Clostridium perfringens. All Clostridium isolates showed susceptibility to clindamycin, metronidazole, penicillin, piperacillin and ampicillin-sulbatam, while C. innocuum isolates were invariably resistant to vancomycin. Among 24 patients with EICI caused by C. innocuum, two (8.3%) had diarrhoea, three (12.5%) had soft-tissue infection, six (25%) had appendicitis and four (16.7%) each had shock and gastrointestinal perforation. The 30-day mortality was 16.7%. The C. innocuum isolated from different sites could not be separated from one another by genotyping. No known toxin genes were identified in the genome of C. innocuum but the species expressed cytotoxicity to epithelial cells. d-Alanine-d-alanine ligase, alanine racemase and d-alanyl-d-alanine carboxypeptidase are three main genes responsible for vancomycin resistance in C. innocuum.

CONCLUSIONS

Vancomycin-resistant C. innocuum is a previously unrecognized, yet prominent, cause for EICI. Genome analysis showed that the species could carry a lipopolysaccharide-like structure that is associated with cytotoxicity to cells in vitro.

Successful Treatment of Clostridium difficile Bacteremia with Aortic Mycotic Aneurysm in a Patient with Prior Endovascular Aortic Aneurysm Repair

The clinical spectrum of Clostridium difficile infection can range from benign gastrointestinal colonization to mild diarrhea and life threatening conditions such as pseudomembranous colitis and toxic megacolon. Extraintestinal manifestations of C. difficile are rare. Here, we report a patient with a history of an endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) presenting with an endovascular leak complicated by C. difficile bacteremia and a mycotic aneurysm. He was successfully treated with an explant of the EVAR, an aorto-left renal bypass, and aorto-bi-iliac bypass graft placement along with a six-week duration of intravenous vancomycin and oral metronidazole.

[Reactive arthritis due to Clostridium difficile: Report of two cases and literature review]

INTRODUCTION

Reactive arthritis due to Clostridium difficile infection is uncommon.

CASE REPORTS

We report two cases of reactive arthritis associated with C. difficile infection that occurred in a 40-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man. The literature review between 1976 (date of first reported case) and 2016 retrieved 54 observations (including our two cases). Reactive arthritis occurs most frequently in young subjects after a variable time frame according to C. difficile infection, involving one or several articulations. The issue is generally favourable with or without anti-inflammatory treatment.

CONCLUSION

The increasing incidence of C. difficile infection makes more likely the occurrence of this related reactive arthritis. Therefore physicians should consider it in differential diagnosis of bacterial infections capable of causing reactive arthritis.

Fatal community-acquired ribotype 002 Clostridium difficile bacteremia

Extra-colonic infections, and especially bacteremia, are infrequent manifestations of Clostridium difficile infection. C. difficile bacteremia is generally health-care associated and polymicrobial. We report the case of a patient on hunger strike that presented a C. difficile colitis and mono-microbial bacteremia on its admission to the hospital. Multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis of stool and blood isolates indicated clonality. The strain was characterized as a ribotype 002, an emerging ribotype previously associated with high fatality rate. The patient received treatment by intra-venous amoxicillin-clavulanate and oral vancomycin but eventually died on the seventh day of admission with concomitant pneumonia and pulmonary embolism.

Clostridium difficile: A rare cause of pyogenic liver abscess

Extra-intestinal infections due to Clostridium difficile have been reported rarely. Herein we report a case of pyogenic liver abscess from toxigenic C. difficile in an 80-year-old non-hospitalized woman with diabetes mellitus, cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases. The patient was admitted to the emergency department with fever and abdominal pain. There was no history of diarrhea or use of antibiotics. Laboratory parameters revealed signs of inflammation and elevated AST and ALT levels. Abdominal ultrasound and computer tomography showed multiple focal lesions in the bilateral liver lobes and hydropic gallbladder with stones. The patient underwent cholecystectomy and the liver abscesses were drained. Toxigenic C. difficile strains were isolated from the drained pus and also from the stool sample. According to repetitive-element PCR (rep-PCR) analyses both organisms were the same. The organisms were susceptible to antibiotics. Despite proper antibiotic therapy and surgical drainage, the patient succumbed to her illness.

Getting to a Man's Heart through His Colon

A 69-year-old man presented with a progressively enlarging pulsatile mass in the left side of his chest. Because of a history of an ischemic cardiomyopathy, he had been randomized in 2003 to undergo coronary artery bypass grafting with a Dor procedure, as part of the Surgical Treatment for Ischemic Heart Failure (STICH) trial. Our patient's imaging studies, including a thoracic computed tomogram and transthoracic echocardiogram, were now of concern for left ventricular pseudoaneurysm. He was taken immediately for surgical exploration. Purulent material, with empyema, extended from the anterior chest wall through the chest cavity into the mediastinum, with communication into the pericardial space. Notably, there was no compromise of the left ventricular cavity, and there was no pseudoaneurysm. The chest was copiously irrigated before closure. The epicardial patch placed 10 years earlier in the STICH trial was not thought to be the nidus of the abscess and was therefore not removed. Three months later, the patient presented again, this time with hemorrhagic shock and bleeding from his left anterior thoracotomy site, which we then re-entered. He was found to have a left ventricular pseudoaneurysm with disruption of the ventricular apex. The epicardial felt-and-Dacron patch, placed 10 years previously during his Dor procedure, was found to be infected with Clostridium difficile and was removed. The left ventricular apex was repaired. Whereas C. difficile bacteremia is rare, the seeding of prosthetic cardiac material with delayed presentation, as in this case, is extraordinarily uncommon.

Spectrum of Clostridium difficile infections: Particular clinical situations

Incidence, pathogenesis, diagnostic techniques and therapeutic management of CDI have prompted abundant and adequate recent literature. However, report on clinical manifestations of CDI is frequently biased by the type of patients selected, the retrospective nature of many papers, the epidemic or endemic characteristics of the population reported. This article seeks to review some less discussed clinical and epidemiological aspects of CDI trying to include the clinical manifestations of this disease in unselected populations and also including discussion of CDI in specific groups of patients such as patients without colon and rectum, pediatric and critical care patients.

Clostridium difficile infection in patients with liver disease: a review

Over the past two decades, there has been a dramatic worldwide increase in both the incidence and severity of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). Paralleling the increased incidence of CDI in the general population, there has been increased interest in CDI among patients with liver disease, particularly in those with liver cirrhosis and post liver transplantation. MEDLINE and several other electronic databases from January 1995 to December 2014 were searched in order to identify potentially relevant literature. Patients with cirrhosis and liver transplant recipients are at high risk for the development CDI because of antibiotics and proton pump inhibitors use, frequent and prolonged hospitalization, immunosuppressant therapy, and multiple comorbidities. Enzyme immunoassay to detect C. difficile toxins A and B in stool remains the most widely used test for CDI diagnosis, although, more recently, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assays have become the preferred diagnostic test in many laboratories. Metronidazole and vancomycin, given orally, have proved to be effective in the treatment of CDI. Both cirrhotic patients and liver transplant recipients with CDI have longer length of hospital stay, increased mortality, and higher healthcare costs than those without CDI. A rapid diagnosis and adequate therapy of CDI are of paramount importance to improve liver disease patients' outcome. The aim of this review is to provide up-to-date information on the epidemiology, risk factors, pathogenesis, treatment, and outcomes in liver disease patients with CDI.