A case of Escherichia coli and Peptoniphilus species mixed osteomyelitis successfully identified by MALDI TOF-MS with a review of the literature

ABSTRACT

Background

Peptoniphilus species are Gram-positive anaerobic cocci that are commensals of the human vagina and gut.

Methods and results

We describe a case of mixed Escherichia coli and Peptoniphilus spp. osteomyelitis identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry as Peptoniphilus harei and present a short literature review.

Conclusion

To our knowledge, only six cases of P. harei osteomyelitis have been reported to date.

KEYWORDS:

• Anaerobic bacteria
• osteomyelitis
• bone and joint infection
• Peptoniphilus harei
• MALDI TOF-MS

Authors’ contributions

All authors had responsibility in the clinical management of the patient and approved the final manuscript. DICS contributed to the clinical diagnosis, handled the literature review, drafted the manuscript and edited it for the final submission. JLG performed the microbiological diagnosis. MSP, SD and OS handled clinical supervision and revised the manuscript. PS edited and revised the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Case reports are waived by the Ethical Committee of our institution.

Consent for publication

The patient described in the manuscript has given written consent for publication of the case report.

Availability of data and material

The datasets corresponding to the current report are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.