A 52-year-old man with malaise and a petechial rash

Capnocytophaga canimorsus is a Gram-negative, fusiform, rod-shaped organism that is part of the normal oral flora of dogs, cats, and other animals. A significant number of Emergency Department (ED) patients are surgically or functionally asplenic and may be at marked risk for overwhelming post-splenectomy infection (OPSI). OPSI has a mortality rate estimated to be up to 70%. The risk of sepsis is estimated to be 30-60 times greater after splenectomy, and C. canimorsus is one of the organisms that can cause catastrophic OPSI.

To describe a case of C. canimorsus septic shock in a post-splenectomy patient and review the epidemiology of OPSI, the role of the spleen in protecting the body from infection, and the potential role of early goal-directed therapy in the resuscitation of patients with OPSI.

A 52 year-old man with a past medical history significant for idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (status post-splenectomy), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (treated for cure), was brought to the ED with the chief complaints of light-headedness, malaise, and a rapidly spreading rash. He was found to be hypotensive, tachycardic, and tachypneic, and had a marked lactic acidosis. He was aggressively resuscitated with large volume fluid resuscitation and treated empirically with broad-spectrum antibiotics for septic shock of unclear etiology. His clinical course was complicated by acute lung injury and renal failure. Blood cultures grew C. canimorsus; he was extubated on hospital day 7 and discharged home several days later in good condition.

Patients status-post-splenectomy are at greatly increased risk for infection from encapsulated organisms and other organisms, including C. canimorsus, which is part of the normal oral flora of dogs, cats, and other animals. It can be spread to humans by bites, scratches, or less invasive forms of animal-human contact. C. canimorsus infection can lead to OPSI. Early recognition and aggressive clinical management, including early goal-directed therapy and rapid administration of antibiotics, may minimize the morbidity and mortality of this condition and other etiologies of severe sepsis and septic shock.