Spontaneous Breast Abscess Due to Mycobacterium fortuitum

The rapidly growing atypical mycobacteria, Mycobacterium fortuitum and Mycobacterium chelonae, are of increasing clinical importance, in part because infections due to these organisms are often hospital acquired. The ubiquitous M. fortuitum has been isolated from water, soil, and dust; however, it i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical infectious diseases 1998-03, Vol.26 (3), p.760-761
Main Authors: Cooke, Fiona J., Friedland, Jon S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abscess - drug therapy
Abscess - microbiology
Abscess - pathology
Abscesses
Adult
AIDS
Antibiotics
Bacterial diseases
Bacterial diseases of the genital system
Biological and medical sciences
Breast diseases
Breasts
Brief Reports
Delayed diagnosis
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Human bacterial diseases
Humans
Infections
Infectious diseases
Mastitis - drug therapy
Mastitis - microbiology
Mastitis - pathology
Medical sciences
Mycobacterium chelonae
Mycobacterium fortuitum
Mycobacterium fortuitum - drug effects
Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous - drug therapy
Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous - microbiology
Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous - pathology
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
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Summary:The rapidly growing atypical mycobacteria, Mycobacterium fortuitum and Mycobacterium chelonae, are of increasing clinical importance, in part because infections due to these organisms are often hospital acquired. The ubiquitous M. fortuitum has been isolated from water, soil, and dust; however, it is pathogenic less frequently than Mycobacterium tuberculosis. M. fortuitum usually causes skin or soft-tissue infections following trauma or surgery but may infect a wide variety of tissues including the lungs, lymph nodes, bones, joints, and meninges. Severe infection associated with implanted prostheses has been attributed to M. fortuitum, and fatal disseminated disease due to this organism in immunocompromised individuals has been described. The organism is rarely recovered from patients with AIDS. To our knowledge, we describe the first case of a breast abscess due to M. fortuitum, which presented in an immunocompetent woman who had no history of previous surgery.
ISSN:1058-4838
1537-6591
DOI:10.1086/517117