Bad news itself or just the messenger? The high mortality of Fusobacterium spp. infections is related to disseminated malignancy and other comorbidities

Figures & data

Fig. 1 Survival in Fusobacterium spp. or S. aureus culture positive patients.

Table 1 Differences in demography, clinic, comorbidity and mortality stratified for focus of infection and type of bacteria

	Airway/lung/pleura, n=61			Blood/ascites/cavity, n=26			Overall airway vs. blood	Overall F (n=28) vs. S (n=59)
	Fusi, n=15	Staph, n=46	p	Fusi, n=13	Staph, n=13	p	p	p
Female, n (%)	2 (13%)	20 (44%)	0.06	5 (39%)	5 (39%)	n.s.	n.s.	0.12
Age, median (range)	65 (47–82)	69 (20–80)	n.s.	64 (19–89)	77 (41–89)	0.17	n.s.	0.09
Penicillin allergy, n (%)	4 (21%)	3 (6%)	0.033	5 (33%)	0 (0%)	0.16	0.12	0.005
Empyema/lung abscess, n (%)	9 (64%)	3 (7%)	0.0004	2 (17%)	0 (0%)	n.s.	n.s.	0.00005
Charlson ≤1, n (%)	6 (40%)	15 (33%)	n.s.	5 (39%)	4 (31%)	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
Charlson, median (range)	2 (0–6)	2 (0–6)	n.s.	2 (0–6)	2 (0–7)	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
Acute severe disease, n (%)	1 (7%)	25 (54%)	0.002	4 (33%)	7 (54%)	n.s.	n.s.	0.003
Active cancer, n (%)	6 (43%)	12 (26%)	n.s.	4 (33%)	4 (31%)	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
Lung cancer, n (%)	5 (36%)	2 (4%)	0.006	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	n.s.	0.10	0.03
Mortality 1 month, n (%)	0	18 (39%)	0.003	4 (31%)	4 (31%)	n.s.	n.s.	0.03
Mortality 6 month, n (%)	3 (20%)	24 (52%)	0.038	6 (42%)	6 (42%)	n.s.	n.s.	0.10

Table 2 Differences in demography, clinic, comorbidity and 6-month mortality in patients dead vs. alive 1 month after being culture-positive for fusobacteria or Staphylococcus aureus

	Dead within 1 month, n=61	Alive after 1 month n=26	p
Female, n (%)	22 (36%)	10 (39%)	n.s.
Age, median (range)	63 (19–86)	77 (51–89)	<0.0005
Fusobacterium spp., n (%)	15 (25%)	13 (50%)	0.02
Penicillin allergy, n (%)	7 (10%)	5 (16%)	n.s.
Empyema/lung abscess, n (%)	12 (21%)	2 (8%)	n.s.
Charlson ≤1, n (%)	5 (19%)	25 (41%)	0.051
Charlson, median (range)	2 (0–7)	3 (1–6)	0.003
Acute severe disease, n (%)	20 (80%)	17 (28%)	<0.0005
Active cancer, n (%)	18 (30%)	8 (32%)	n.s.
Lung cancer, n (%)	0 (0%)	7 (12%)	0.10
Airway/lung/pleura, n (%)	18 (69%)	43 (71%)	n.s.
Mortality 6 month, n (%)	100 (100%)	13 (21%)	<0.000001