Bacteremia With Nontyphi Salmonella and Therapeutic Implication

OBJECTIVES: The recent decades witnessed the increased incidence of bacteremia with nontyphi Salmonella, especially in patients with underlying diseases. To evaluate clinically the patients with bacteremia by nontyphi Salmonella, we investigated the clinical records of the patients. METHODS: Retrospecitive study was performed on 30 cases of bacteremia with nontyphi Salmonella admitted to Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital from 1987 to 1993, and we analyzed with regard to age distribution, underlying diseases, clinical presentation and fatality. RESULTS: Children below 2 years of age were seven patients and patients over 55 years of age were 8 patients. The male to female ratio was 3:2. Only five cases were nosocomially acquired. More than two-thirds (21 patients) had no discernible other illness at the time of their bacteremia. A quarter of the patients presented without gastrointestinal manifestation. There were four deaths in the 30 patients with nontyphi Salmonella septicemia (13.3%). CONCLUSIONS: We investigated the clinical characteristics of 30 cases of non-typhi Salmonella bacteremia, which has a relatively high incidence nowadays while, to the contrary. Salmonella typhi trends toward being on the decrease in Korea.