[Frequency and severity of systemic infections caused by Streptococcus mitis and sanguis II in neutropenic children]

We have retrospectively evaluated 24 sepsis episodes caused by viridans streptococci in 23 neutropenic children during a 21 months period at the Pediatric Hematology Unit of St. Louis Hospital. The underlying malignancies included acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute non lymphoblastic leukemia, aplastic anemia and solid tumor. In 17 children neutropenia, defined as a neutrophil count of less than 500 per cubic millimeter, was caused by cytotoxic chemotherapy. For 6 other children neutropenia was consequential to pretransplant treatment regimen for autologous bone marrow transplantation including cytotoxic chemotherapy and total body irradiation. All patients had a silicone rubber atrial catheter. In 9 patients sepsis was associated only with fever for less than 48 hours. In 5 other children fever was prolonged more than 72 hours in spite of specific antimicrobial therapy. No other organism was isolated. In 10 patients, however, the infectious syndrome was severe and the features included cardiac failure (7 patients), pneumonia (7 patients) resembling adult respiratory distress syndrome, encephalopathy (3 patients) without meningitis and proteinuria, 7 of these patients needed a management in a pediatric intensive care unit and 2 died in spite of adapted antibiotics. Streptococci were isolated in blood cultures in 23 children.