Is any FT member a bacteria expert?

[chandlerman4649]

Guys,

Has anyone ever heard of "rare acinetobacter LWOFFI" discovered in a specimen from a Wound Deep Culture?

Bob

[Neisseria]

Hi bob, i will be a medic in 1 year so i will try to help. Acinetobacter lwoffii is not a rare bacteria, its a common bacteria of low virulence that lives in our sking, oropharynx and perineum. It only infects immunocompromised patients usually. Acinetobacter is known because of its prevalence in hospital infections, linked with the use of cathethers. I repeat, it has a very low virulence and mortality, but sometimes is difficult to treat because it is resistant to various antibiotics. Penile implants infections are usually linked with other bacterias such us staphylococcus epidermidis and enterobacterium. Hope this helps.


How are you doing now?

[chandlerman4649]

Neisseria,

I am doing better now. The reason I asked about the bacteria is that about three weeks after my first implant, the surgeon decided I had an infection somewhere in the implant area. I went back into the hospital and they completely removed all three pieces of the implant and took tissue cultures of each area of my body as well as each piece of the implant. Then they flushed the scrotum, cavernosa openings and the location of the reservoir with five different flushes of antibiotics, the last flush being vancomycin. The hospital's lab report indicated that they found Acinetobacter lwoffii in the deep tissue specimen of the right cavernosa opening after removing the cylinder.

I have been on IV antibiotics, Ceftriaxone 1 GM/SW 10 ML syringe every 24 hours and Vancomycin 1.5 GM in NS 100 ML infusion ball every 12 hours, through a PICC line for the past 4 weeks and 2 days. They removed the PICC line this past Wednesday and now I am on 10 days of Ciprofloxacin 750 mg twice a day.

The infectious disease specialist who found the bacteria said that it probably came "from the hospital or the community", whatever community means. The only thing I know is that I DID NOT PUT THAT BACTERIA IN THERE and I am very interested in finding out some of the ways I could have gotten infected.

Thanks for your info. If you have any other information, please share with me.


Bob

[Neisseria]

0community means out from the hospital, but is from the hospital sure, but it does not mean that your surgeon wasn t careful. Shit happens, forget about it and try to heal and enjoy your new implant!

[rlm1818]

Neisseria,
The infectious disease specialist who found the bacteria said that it probably came "from the hospital or the community", whatever community means. The only thing I know is that I DID NOT PUT THAT BACTERIA IN THERE and I am very interested in finding out some of the ways I could have gotten infected.
Bob

Seems to me the most authoritative expert by far would be the infectious disease specialist who has already examined you and the bacteria. If he can't say for sure how it got there, it seems to me doubtful that anyone here could be more definitive.

I have no medical training. From what I have read implant infections were much more common a decade or so ago. When they studied infections then, it was determined that roughly 70% of infections were bacteria commonly found on human skin. From that it was inferred that despite extensive sterilization or the patients skin, it was likely that the source of the infection was the patients own skin. That has led some surgeons (Eid and Kramer among them) to adapt their techniques to a "no touch" method in which anything that enters the patients body never touches the skin. I saw a video of surgery by one doctor I considered using (but decided not to) in which several things, including all the implant components were rested on the patient's raw skin during surgery. That was one of several reasons I decided not to use that surgeon. However, even the best surgeons who use the "no touch" techniques still have cases of infection. So, as Niesseria states, sometimes shit happens even with the best.