title: Serious infections caused by multiply-resistant Enterococcus faecium.
abstract: Three liver transplant patients developed serious intraabdominal infections and recurrent bacteremias due to strains of Enterococcus faecium with high-level resistance to vancomycin. The enterococci were also resistant to all other antibacterials except pristinamycin, which, given orally, proved ineffective. One strain was sensitive to tetracycline. Increasingly, clinicians are likely to encounter infections caused by multiply-resistant enterococci, and these cases illustrate the seriousness of such infections in compromised patients.
authors.affiliation: Dulwich Public Health Laboratory, London, U.K.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Wade
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rolando
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Casewell
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen; D000328:Adult; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology; D018432:Drug Resistance, Multiple; D016984:Enterococcus faecium / Q000187:drug effects*; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D007121:Immunocompetence; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D012008:Recurrence; D018805:Sepsis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology; D014640:Vancomycin / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D014640:Vancomycin