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INCIDENCE OF BILOPHILA WADSWORTHIA IN CLINICAL SAMPLES - A TWO YEAR SURVEY

Schumacher U.K.*⁽¹⁾, Haecker F.-M.⁽²⁾, Bless D.⁽³⁾, Laue H.⁽⁴⁾ and Werner H.⁽¹⁾
Dept.Med.Microbiology (1), Dept.Ped.Surgery(2), ENT Hospital(3), Eberhard- Karls-Univ., Tuebingen, Dept.Microbial.Ecol.(4), Univ. of Konstanz, Germany

Bilophila wadsworthia, an unique, gram-negative, obligately anaerobic and slow growing rod, is reported as part of various infectious processes. Since January 1996, every sample, which was sent to our laboratory for detection of anaerobes, was also examined for the presence of B.wadsworthia using taurine supplemented Bacteroides-Bile- Esculin agar plates incubated anaerobically for seven days. During this period B.wadsworthia was isolated from 96 samples of 91 patients. 54 of these isolates were recovered from intraabdominal infectious processes or postoperative wound infections as e.g. peritonitis (n=23), liver abscess (n=2) and wound materials (n=7). Additionally 19 isolates were found from genitourinary sources as vaginal secretions (n=16), scrotal wound (n=1) and an infected episiotomy (n=1). Isolates from extraabdominal locations (n=23) were recovered from e.g. chronic leg wounds (n=7), tracheal secretions of intensive care patients (n=4) and from wound material in a case of necrotizing fasciitis. In two patients suffering from cholesteatoma, one of them developing an otogenic brain abscess, as well as in a patient with postoperative otitis externa, B. wadsworthia was isolated from ear secretions or abscess material. However, B.wadsworthia was not found in cultures of 100 ear swabs from 50 healthy volunteers.

Although the virulence factors of B.wadsworthia are insuffiently understood, B.wadsworthia seems to be an important although underestimated pathogen of a variety of infectious processes at different sites of the human body.