Diversity of coryneforms found in infections following prosthetic joint insertion and open fractures

Abstract

Summary: In a 5-year period, 73 coryneform isolates from prosthetic joint and open fracture infections in 60 patients treated in a hospital specialized in orthopedic surgery were speciated. The most frequent species were Corynebacterium amycolatum, Corynebacterium striatum, Corynebacterium diphtheriae biotype mitis, and Corynebacterium jeikeium. At least 14 isolates were deemed clinically significant as sole agents of infection.

CorynebacteriumSpecies Isolated from Bone and Joint Infections Identified by 16S rRNA Gene Sequence Analysis

“…The presence of C. amycolatum in infections following prosthetic joint infection and open fractures has been previously reported (25). Similarly, the presence of C. striatum in infections following prosthetic joint infection and open fractures (25) and vertebral osteomyelitis (8) has been previously reported.…”

“…Similarly, the presence of C. striatum in infections following prosthetic joint infection and open fractures (25) and vertebral osteomyelitis (8) has been previously reported. Likewise, the presence of C. jeikeium in infections following prosthetic joint infection and open fractures (25), total knee arthroplasty infection (28), and osteomyelitis without a foreign body (2) was also previously reported. In this study, C. aurimucosum represented the second most frequently isolated species after C. striatum.…”

“…In this study, C. pseudodiphteriticum was isolated from two deep samples. It was previously isolated from one bone infection (25). As eight of our isolates were part of mixed floras (Table 1), their role in infection remains a question.…”

“…However, coryneform bacilli have been found in up to 10% of cases (24,25). Besides surgical and conventional treatments (including long-term antibiotic therapy) (3,4,12), accurate identification of bacterial isolates has so far been an essential task for clinical microbiology laboratories (6,7,23,24).…”

Corynebacterium pseudodiphtheriticum septic arthritis secondary to intra-articular injection – a case report and literature review

“…The only other published case referring to C. pseudodiphtheriticum is related to a prosthetic hip joint infection and the clinical significance of its isolation from superficial scrapings was questioned by its authors (von Graevenitz et al, 1998).…”