[Burkholderia cepacia bacteremia: a prospective analysis of 33 episodes]

The aim of this study is to describe clinical characteristics and outcome of Burkholderia cepacia bacteraemia, susceptibility of the isolates and differences between cases from epidemic outbreaks and sporadic cases.

From 1993 to 2009, episodes of B. cepacia bacteraemia were prospectively collected in a university hospital.

A total of 33 episodes were included, of which 21 were part of two outbreaks (9 in 1994 and 12 in 2006). Outbreak cases had a median age of 58 years, 45% had neoplasia, median length of stay until bacteraemia was 15 d (range 0-120) and 82% had received an antibiotic. The most prevalent sources of bacteraemia were catheter (48%) and unknown (33%). On the other hand, sporadic cases stayed longer until diagnosis (median 25 days versus 11, p=0.041) and showed a trend to have neoplasia more frequently (83% versus 33%, p=0.083). Susceptibility to antibiotics was varied and co-trimoxazole was the only active agent against all strains.

B. cepacia is an uncommon pathogen, which affects patients with prolonged hospitalization and severe comorbidities. The identification of more than one case in a short term of time should raise the suspicion of an outbreak.