Successful treatment of meningitis caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii with intravenous and intrathecal colistin

Yu-Huai Ho, Lih-Shinn Wang, Hui-Jen Chao, Kia-Chich Chang, Chain-Fa Su
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, and Departments of 2Laboratory Medicine and 3Biotechnology, and 4Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital and Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan

Received: March 15, 2007    Revised: June 15, 2007    Accepted: June 27, 2007   

Dr Chain-Fa Su, Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, 707, Section 3, Chung Yang Road, Hualien, Taiwan. E-mail: Dr Chain-Fa Su This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii is an emergent nosocomial pathogen. A 61-year-old woman developed meningitis caused by MDRAB 27 days after receiving a surgical intervention for invasive meningioma. The patient failed to respond to high doses of meropenem and sulbactam treatment and the organism persisted in the cerebrospinal fluids for two months. The regimen was changed to intravenous and intrathecal colistin for 28 days and the patient responded well. Administration of colistin both intravenously and intrathecally could be a suitable option as a salvage therapy for meningitis due to multidrug-resistant A. baumannii.

Acinetobacter baumannii; Colistin; Drug resistance, multiple; Injections, spinal; Meningitis, bacterial


 

J Microbiol Immunol Infect. 2007;40:537-540.