Colistin, an Old Drug in a New Territory, Solid Organ Transplantation

BACKGROUND

The clinical experience with colistin therapy for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens in solid organ transplantation is limited.

METHODS

Patients transplanted from January 2003 to July 2011 and treated with intravenous or nebulized colistin were included. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize patients' characteristics and Kaplan-Meier curves for survival analysis.

RESULTS

Fifteen patients were included: 10 adults (median age, 54.6 y; range, 32.2-79.6 y) and 5 children (median age, 3.3 y; range, 1.1-10.4 y). Eight patients had intra-abdominal infections, 3 had pneumonia, and 4 had bacteremia. The infections were diagnosed at a median of 5.9 months (range, 0.8-49.8 mo) after transplantation. Eight patients had coinfections, mainly with enteric pathogens. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated in 13 cases and ESBL Klebsiella oxytoca and ESBL Escherichia coli were isolated in 1 case each. Thirteen patients received concomitant antibiotics with colistin. The median dose of intravenous colistin (13 patients) was 2.7 mg/kg/d (range, 1-4.9 mg/kg/d) and nebulized colistin (2 patients) was 241.7 mg/d (range, 150-333.3 mg/d). Clinical cure was achieved in 9 patients (60%). Four-week survival rate after infection was 86.7% (95% confidence interval, 56.4%-96.5%). There was no difference in the median creatinine clearance in adults (P = .38) or children (P = .88) before and after colistin. One patient had both neurotoxicity and nephrotoxicity, and 1 patient had neurotoxicity only.

CONCLUSIONS

Colistin might be used as an alternate therapy for transplant patients with multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens.

Enterococcus pneumonia complicated with empyema and lung abscess in an HIV-positive patient. Case report and review of the literature

This report describes the first case of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus pneumonia complicated with empyema and lung abscess in an HIV patient and reviews previously published cases of Enterococcus pleuro-pulmonary infection. Our case highlights the rarity of this entity and reviews the risk factors for Enterococcus pleuro-pulmonary infections.