Corynebacterium CDC group JK (Corynebacterium jeikeium) sepsis in haematological patients: a report of three cases and a systematic literature review

We describe 3 patients with Corynebacterium jeikeium sepsis in neutropenic phase during treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia. Fever was the first symptom. All had a central venous catheter which was removed. Two patients developed subcutaneous nodules containing pus when the neutrophil count recovered; 1 had intracutaneous and pulmonary lesions. They were treated with vancomycin and recovered when the neutrophil count started to rise. A review of 80 neutropenic patients with C. jeikeium sepsis reported in the literature, together with our 3 cases indicates that risk factors for infection are the presence of a central venous catheter, being an adult male or postmenopausal female, profound and prolonged neutropenia and exposure to multiple antibiotics. Skin lesions are reported in 48% and pulmonary lesions in 36% of the patients. The overall mortality is 34% but in patients with recovery of the bone marrow only 5%. Therefore haematopoietic growth factors should be considered in neutropenic patients with C. jeikeium infection