MYCOBACTERIUM NEOAURUM INFECTION OF A HICKMAN CATHETER IN AN IMMUNOSUPPRESSED PATIENT

Mycobacterium neoaurum is a rapidly growing mycobacterium that has only once before been reported as a cause of bacteremia in an immunocompromised patient. We report on a patient who developed bacteremia after an allogeneic bone marrow transplantation and from whose blood (taken via a Hickman catheter) M. neoaurum was isolated on three separate occasions. There was a clinical response to therapy with ticarcillin/clavulanate and tobramycin, and the organism appeared to be susceptible to the former in vitro. The Hickman catheter was removed because of persistence of the organism in cultures of blood taken from the catheter. M. neoaurum may be a rare cause of infections in immunocompromised patients and should not be dismissed as an environmental contaminant.