Lysinibacillus fusiformis bacteremia: Case report and literature review

A 93-year-old woman was diagnosed with Lysinibacillus fusiformis bacteremia complicated with coma blisters. Initial gram staining for L. fusiformis indicated the presence of gram-negative rods; however, subsequent staining of colonies from Mueller-Hinton agar revealed the presence of gram-positive and gram-negative rods with spherical endospores, and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (VITEK (R) MS and microflex (R) LT/SH) definitively identified the organism as L. fusiformis. The two-week administration of piperacillin/tazobactam and ampicillin resulted in an improvement of the patient's general condition, and the skin lesions gradually improved.

Automated summary

This article reports a case of a 93-year-old woman diagnosed with Lysinibacillus fusiformis bacteremia complicated with coma blisters. Through multiple stainings and mass spectrometry identification, the organism was definitively identified as L. fusiformis. The patient showed improvement with the two-week administration of antibiotics.