Fatal Salmonella septicaemia with disseminated intravascular coagulation and renal failure

Four elderly patients with salmonella septicaemia complicated by irreversible endotoxic shock and acute renal failure are described. The organism isolated from three of the patients with Salmonella typhimurium, which is not usually invasive; the fourth patient was infected with S. abony. The factors associated with the severe systemic infections are discussed. Clinical and haematological findings suggested disseminated intravascular coagulation, and this was subsequently confirmed histologically in each patient by the identification of haematoxylinophil bodies in the pulmonary and renal microcirculations.