Unusual infections due to Listeria monocytogenes in the Southern California Desert.

Background: During the past 22 years, 14 patients have been hospitalized with infection due to Listeria monocytogenes at the Eisenhower Medical Center, a regional 300-bed hospital in the desert southwest of Southern California. A large number of patients are retired, elderly, and have underlying and often systemic disease.

Methods: Blood agar and routine media were inoculated with liquid from a sterile site such as blood, cerebrospinal fluid, or joint fluid and observed daily for growth.

Diagnosis and treatment of Candida vertebral osteomyelitis: clinical experience with a short course therapy of amphotericin B lipid complex.

Background: Musculoskeletal candidiasis occurs in some patients with candidemia resulting from organ infection, IV drug use, or indwelling central venous catheters. Diagnosis is often difficult because of vague symptomatology and a frequent afebrile course.

Case Description: Three patients with Candida vertebral osteomyelitis are presented.

Multiple cerebral abscesses because of Listeria monocytogenes: three case reports and a literature review of supratentorial listerial brain abscess(es).

Background: Central nervous system involvement often follows bacteremia because of Listeria monocytogenes. Meningitis is clinically the most common manifestation, while brain abscess occurs in about 1% of patients. Brain abscess is usually solitary but in recent years, probably in part because of the availability of computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, several reports have described two or more separate supratentorial abscesses.