Anaerobes isolated from bone and joint infections and their susceptibility to antibiotics

Robinsoniella peoriensis infection related to right femoral hardware

Discovered in swine manure relatively recently, Robsinoniella peoriensis is a gram-positive anaerobic bacilli that has been reported to cause human infections. Its antimicrobial susceptibility, epidemiology and overall pathogenicity are still not fully understood. We report a case of a hardware related soft tissue infection in the right femur caused by Robinsoneilla peoriensis following an open reduction internal fixation in a 67 year old immunocompetent woman. The patient was successfully treated with six weeks of ertapenem.

Rapid identification of Robinsoniella peoriensis using specific 16S rRNA gene PCR primers

Robinsoniella peoriensis is a Gram-positive, spore-forming anaerobic bacterium initially isolated and characterized from swine manure and feces. Since then strains of this species have been identified from a variety of mammalian and other GI tracts. More recently strains of this species have been isolated from a plethora of human infections. Therefore, it is of great interest to develop methods to rapidly identify this microorganism in the medical and other laboratories. This report describes the use of PCR primers targeting the 16S rRNA gene of R. peoriensis to identify strains of this bacterium.