Abstract
Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) pseudomembraneous colitis was diagnosed in a 13-year-old boy with Hodgkin’s disease 3 months after autologous bone marrow transplantation. Hematopoiesis was fully reconstituted at the time. C. difficile infection occurred after gall bladder empyema had been treated conservatively with i.v. antibiotics and prophylactic 4-week administration of oral amoxicillin. C. difficile colitis was diagnosed early and intensive supportive therapy combined with administration of i.v. and subsequently oral vancomycin therapy failed. It is a phenomenon rarely seen and successful eradication of the clostridium infection was only achieved by a combination of higher dose vancomycin with metronidazole. During the post-colitis recovery the patient experienced a relapse of Hodgkin’s disease and died following further surgical intervention 137 days post-transplantation.
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Kavan, P., Sochor, M., Nyc, O. et al. Pseudomembraneous clostridium after autologous bone marrow transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 21, 521–523 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1701117
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1701117
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