Metastatic Peptostreptococcus intermedius endophthalmitis after a dental procedure

A 46-year-old man developed symptoms of a chronic progressive uveitis in his right eye approximately one week after a dental procedure. The patient's intraocular inflammation was not diminished by massive treatment with topical and systemic corticosteroid therapy or intravenously administered adrenocorticotropic hormone. The inflammatory process progressed to an overt endophthalmitis during a period of three weeks and the eye eventually required evisceration. A pure culture of Peptostreptococcus intermedius was isolated from the eye. The most likely source of this organism was hematologic transport following a dental procedure.