Nosocomial Respiratory Infection Caused by Xanthomonas malttophilia in Immunocompromized Hosts

Abstract

Between January 1988 and December 1992, 68 patients admitted to our Department of Internal Medicine with hematological malignancies or solid tumors showed colonization of the respiratory tract with Xanthomonas maltophilia (X. maltophilia). To characterize the significance of respiratory tract colonization by X. maltophilia, we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of the 68 patients colonized with this organism. Twenty-seven of these 68 patients developed pneumonia, with X. maltophilia being implicated in 10 cases. The majority of the 10 patients showed lobular infiltration on chest X-ray. Pleural effusion was observed in 2 (20%) of the 10 patients. All 68 strains of X. maltophilia were resistant to imipenem/cilastatin. Most strains (98.5%) were sensitive to latamoxef, while all strains were sensitive to minocycline. This report describes the clinical features of nosocomial X. maltophilia pneumonia in immunocompromised patients.