Treatment of ventriculoperitoneal shunt infection and ventriculitis caused by Acinetobacter baumannii: a case report

BACKGROUND: Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) infections are a recognized problem in healthcare, causing ventriculoperitoneal shunt infection and ventriculitis. Such infections are serious intracranial infection that can lead to serious complication and death. Treatment of infection caused by A. baumannii becomes difficult because of its inclination to develop pandrug resistance to the universally used antibiotics. In this case, we focused on pediatric ventriculitis/shunt infection caused by A. baumannii in an extensive follow-up and report the subsequent treatment outcome. Very limited information regarding the therapeutic options against A. baumannii ventriculitis/shunt infection is available in our hospital. Thus, we present one such case and the problems in its treatment. CASE PRESENTATION: We reported the case of a 6-year-old Ethiopian boy who developed ventriculitis/shunt infection from the pandrug-resistant strain of A. baumannii, after decompression of a craniotomy for medulloblastoma. Following the surgical procedure, he had developed hydrocephalus and ventriculoperitoneal shunt infection/ventriculitis as he presented with persistent fever, elevated white blood cell count, reduced glucose level, and the cerebrospinal fluid culture revealed A. baumannii, which was not responding to most of commercially available antibiotics systemically. Our patient was successfully treated with intravenous ampicillin-sulbactam. CONCLUSIONS: We presented our case of pandrug-resistant A. baumannii ventriculoperitoneal shunt infection and ventriculitis successfully treated with a systemic ampicillin-sulbactam. Provision of systemic ampicillin-sulbactam should not be undermined. Therefore, this case exemplifies that intravenous administration of ampicillin-sulbactam can be a good therapeutic option against A. baumannii ventriculoperitoneal shunt infection and ventriculitis. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13256-018-1680-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.