The increasing importance of polymicrobial bacteremia
D. Kiani, E. L. Quinn, K. H. Burch, T. Madhavan, L. D. Saravolatz and T. R. Neblett
Polymicrobial bacteremia increased from 6% in 1970 to 13% in 1975 in
patients with bloodstream infections. This type of serious infection most
commonly complicated genitourinary (27%) and gastrointestinal (26%)
conditions, frequently followed invasive procedures (68%), was more common
in hospitalized patients (73%), and was often associated with malignancies
(25%) or immunosuppressive or cancer chemotherapy (34%). Although
polymicrobial endocarditis was more commonly encountered in recent years,
this infection accounted for only 4.5% of patients with multiple organism
bacteremias. Gram-negative aerobic bacteria were isolated from 62% and
anaerobic bacteria in 39% of patients with polymicrobial bacteremia
compared with 37% and 14%, respectively, in patients with monomicrobial
bacteremia. In the 88 patients with polymicrobial bacteremia, the mortality
was 44.5%, compared with 18.0% in patients with monomicrobial bacteremia.
