[Acute systemic nocardiosis. Renal abscess]

Nocardiosis is an infection caused by the Nocardia genus that rarely involves the genitourinary system. The microbiological characteristics of Nocardia asteroides and the pathogenesis, possible symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of nocardiosis are reviewed.

We describe a patient with lung involvement and intraparenchymal abscess in the left kidney that required nephrectomy. Nocardia asteroides was isolated in the culture.

Systemic nocardiosis is a serious infectious disease characterized by infection of the brain or two nonadjacent organs. Specific genitourinary involvement is rare and involvement of the renal parenchyma usually occurs during the aggressive course of acute systemic nocardiosis. The fatal outcome of our case conforms to the high rate of mortality described in the literature, particularly in acute systemic nocardiosis with neurological involvement, and emphasizes the importance of early diagnosis and appropriate antibiotic therapy.