Catheter-related bloodstream infection caused by Tsukamurella ocularis: A case report

Tsukamurella spp. causes mainly bacteremia and central venous catheter-related bloodstream infections. To the best of our knowledge, there is no documented evidence that Tsukamurella ocularis causes catheter-related bloodstream infections like other species of Tsukamurella. We present a novel case of T. ocularis bacteremia in a 69-year-old woman with malignant cancer, wherein the patient was successfully treated with a peripherally inserted central venous catheter. We administered combination antimicrobial therapy to the patient, which was terminated only after confirming the absence of infection. We identified T. ocularis by sequencing three housekeeping genes that could not be identified using conventional mass spectrometry and 16S rRNA gene analysis.

Automated summary

This article presents a rare case of T. ocularis infection, demonstrating the potential for this strain to cause catheter-related bloodstream infections. The patient was successfully treated with a combination of antimicrobial therapy and gene sequencing.