[Streptococcus bovis septicemia and colonic cancer]

The authors report the case of a patient who developed a Streptococcus Bovis septicemia in the post-operative course of a surgical cure of an incarcerated umbilical hernia. There were no other complaints. A barium enema showed a malignant tumor of the descending colon. There were hepatic metastases. No complementary treatment was undertaken. The patient died shortly after. In the literature colonic proliferative lesions in association with this germ is reported in a total of 36% of proliferative lesions (15% of cancers and 21% of adenomas). It is concluded that the discovery of a malignant or premalignant proliferative lesion in one third of the cases justifies the exploration of the colon by barium enema and/or colonoscopy in the case of Streptococcus Bovis septicemia. The discovery of other digestive lesions (malignant or not) seems to be coincidental.