[Septicemia due to Fusobacterium necrophorum. A case report]

Septicemia due to the anaerobic gram-negative bacillus Fusobacterium necrophorum is exceptional. It may originate in tonsillitis or intestinal or gynecological infection. We report one case in a young man with head injury. Fusobacterium necrophorum is frequently associated with aerobic pathogens such as streptococcus or staphylococcus (more than fifty per cent of the cases). Metastatic localizations are numerous, often pleuro-pulmonary (infarction, abscess), hepatic (cytolysis) and meningeal (purulent meningitis, cerebral abscess), and in some instances articular (joint swelling) or embolic. Hypercoagulability is often associated. Prognosis is severe (45% mortality rate). Penicillin G seems to be the best antibiotic but erythromycin is effective, as well as imidazole which was very active in our case.