title: Bacteroides fragilis bacteremia and infected aortic aneurysm presenting as fever of unknown origin: diagnostic delay without routine anaerobic blood cultures.
abstract: We report the case of a 71-year-old male with Bacteroides fragilis bactermia and infected aortic aneurysm that went undiagnosed, in part, because routine anaerobic blood cultures were not obtained. Bacteremia caused by anaerobes has been reported to be declining, and recommendations to discontinue routine anaerobic blood cultures have been implemented in some hospitals. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an anaerobic bacteremia and infection that had a delay in diagnosis due to this change in blood-culturing protocol. The potential impact of deleting anaerobic blood cultures from routine protocols is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine and University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19129, USA.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: O'Donnell
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Asbel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000150:complications*; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001442:Bacteroides Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001441:Bacteroides fragilis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005335:Fever of Unknown Origin / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male