[Four Cases of Bacteremia Caused by Helicobacter cinaedi in the Urological Ward at About the Same Time]

Here we report the outbreak of bacteremia caused by Helicobacter cinaedi (H. cinaedi) in the urology ward. Case 1 was a man in his seventies with prostate cancer. Bacteremia caused by H. cinaedi developed 6 days after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. Case 2 was a man in his sixties with small cell carcinoma of the prostate. Bacteremia developed at 5 days of docetaxel therapy. Case 3 was a man in his fifties with left renal pelvis carcinoma. Bacteremia developed 3 days after laparoscopic left nephroureterectomy. Case 4 was a man in his seventies with right renal pelvic carcinoma and bladder cancer. Bacteremia developed 22 days after laparoscopic right nephroureterectomy and laparoscopic radical cystectomy. Each bacteremia occurred almost simultaneously. Fortunately, all 4 cases were treated by antibiotics successfully and there were no cases of recurrence. Whole environmental inspection of the ward did not reveal H. cinaedi. However, multilocus sequence typing proved the strains in cases 3 and 4 to be the same. Therefore, cross-infection was suspected. H. cinaedi can develop to a pathogen of immunocompromised infection. This report clarified that this pathogen can cause bacteremia in the urology ward.