PSEUDOMONAS-STUTZERI INFECTION - A REVIEW OF HOSPITAL ISOLATES AND A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Pseudomonas stutzeri is uncommonly isolated from patients and rarely causes disease. Clinical isolates of P. stutzeri from a university hospital were reviewed over a 16-year period. In the hospital review, only three patients were identified with P. stutzeri infection, and in only one of these was the organism present as the sole isolate. A review of the literature shows that P. stutzeri is most frequently isolated from blood, wounds, the respiratory tract, and urine. Patients with P. stutzeri infections often have serious underlying disease but generally respond to treatment with antibiotics including the aminoglycosides, the antipseudomonal penicillins, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and the third-generation cephalosporins.