A Case Report of Campylobacter fetus Subspecies fetus Oophoritis

Abstract

A 45-year-old female with oophoritis (pelvic inflammatory disease) caused by Campylobacter fetus (C. fetus) is reported. She was admitted to the hospital because of high fever and an acute abdomen. On admission, severe inflammation was observed by the laboratory findings, and abdominal X-ray and CT scan revealed ileus with marked swelling of the right ovary. Laparotomy was performed with adonexooophrectomy due to the tubo-ovarian abscesses. C. fetus was isolated from the right ovary, salpinx and ascites. Erythromycin was administered after a sensitive test of C. fetus as the bacteria was isolated at operation. She was discharged on the 17th day after her admission. Indirect immunofluorescent test with hyperimmune rabbit sera to isolated C. fetus revealed a fine to coarse granular immunoreaction in the cytoplasm of the macrophages infiltrated in the tissue. This result was interpreted as the existence and growth of bacteria in the right ovarian tissue. Oophoritis due to C. fetus subspecies fetus is very rare. To our knowledge, this case is the second case reported in Japan.

Tubo‐ovarian abscess with endometrial cyst probably infected by Campylobacter fetus: Two cases

“…Adnexitis caused by C. fetus has rarely been reported, with only three cases appearing in the English‐language literature to date (Table ), with the present report providing the fourth and fifth cases. As aforementioned, however, it is not easy to isolate Campylobacter , and there could be more cases of acute pelvic inflammatory disease caused by Campylobacter that have not been detected.…”

“…Although C. fetus has been said to cause bacteremia especially in immunocompromised, elderly, or pregnant persons, all patients in the three previously reported cases and the present two cases were young healthy women who were not immunocompromised. One patient had eaten uncooked meat before onset, but, in the other patients, the routes of C. fetus infection were not determined. Importantly, we detected C. fetus infection in two cases of endometriotic cysts within a short period of time (2 years) in a single institute; thus, this disease could be vulnerable to C. fetus infection.…”

“…Campylobacter infection is a zoonosis and can cause abortion, preterm birth, and neonatal infection in humans, but only three cases of Campylobacter adnexitis have been reported to date . Campylobacter bacteria usually require special conditions to grow, which may make their detection difficult in everyday clinical practice.…”