Chromobacterium violaceum infections in children: two case reports and literature review.

Purpose: Chromobacterium violaceum(C. violaceum) is a gram-negative bacterium that rarely infects humans, especially children. However, the mortality rate is high and there are no clear guidelines for treatment. The aim of this paper is to increase clinicians' awareness of diseases caused by C. violaceum infections in children, to diagnose and treat them in a timely manner, to improve patient survival and to reduce mortality.
Results: We analysed the latest paediatric-related English language literature over the last 10 years and summarised the latest mechanisms of injury, susceptibility factors, adverse prognostic and mortality predictors, mortality rates, methods to reduce mortality, clinical manifestations, new diagnostic methods, therapeutic agents and directions for future drug development for C. violaceum.
Conclusions: Based on the available data, we conclude that the possibility of C. violaceum infection should be considered and diagnosed when cellulitis, septicaemia and visceral abscesses develop in children with a history of skin injury and exposure to stagnant water or soil. When clinicians strongly suspect that a child is infected with this bacterium, the recommended medication is ciprofloxacin if the child presents with severe illness. If the child has a non-severe condition, medications with relatively fewer side effects for children can be chosen, such as gentamicin, trimethoprim/ sulfamethoxazole, imipenem, and other drugs. The physician can then adjust the antimicrobial regimen based on the antimicrobial spectrum after obtaining the drug sensitivity results.
Competing Interests: Declarations. Consent for publication: Informed consent was obtained from the patient’s relative for publication purposes. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Ethical approval: Ethical approval was waived by the local Ethics Committee (ShaoXing KeQiao Women And Children’s Hospital Ethics Committee) in view of the retrospective chart review of patient records and all the procedures being performed were part of the routine care. Consent to participate: Informed consent obtained from the patient’s relative. Rights and permissions: Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)