A Case Report and Literature Review of a Death Caused by Aeromonas daca Complicated with Septic Shock

Abstract

Background: For decades, Aeromonas daca has often been mistaken for Aeromonas hydrophila by phenotypic identification systems and shows obvious characteristics of virulence. The clinical data of patients with A. daca reported in China and elsewhere in the past 5 years were retrospectively analyzed to improve clinicians' understanding of the disease. Methods: The diagnosis and treatment of a patient who died of diffuse alveolar hemorrhage caused by A. daca in our hospital were reported. The CNKI, Wanfang and VIP databases were searched with "Aeromonas daca" as the keyword, and the PubMed database was searched with "Aeromonas dhakensis" as the keyword; these searchers covered publications from the last 5 years. The data reported in the literature from China and elsewhere were analyzed retrospectively. Results: The patient, a 26-year-old male with no underlying disease, was admitted to our hospital for 3 days because of cough, expectoration and shortness of breath. According to blood and lavage fluid cultures and next-generation sequencing (NGS), the patient was diagnosed with an A. daca infection. He soon deteriorated to a critical condition complicated with septic shock and died after active rescue treatment. A total of three relatively complete English-language studies were retrieved, yielding data on 3 patients in total. Conclusion: A. daca infection is lethal, and an accurate taxonomy can improve our understanding of the epidemiological distribution and virulence potential of this human pathogen. Third-generation cephalosporins and carbapenems should be used cautiously in the treatment of severe A. daca infection, and the best regimen is cefepime or fluoroquinolones.