Lactobacilli are normal commensals of the gastrointestinal and female genital tract. Due to its low virulence these bacteria are known to cause opportunistic infections. They cause mostly bacteraemia with or without endocarditis and rarely cause pleuro-pulmonary infection. We report a case of Lactobacillus coryniformis pleuro-pulmonary infection and review 14 previously reported cases of lactobacilli causing pleuro-pulmonary infections. Our patient had small cell carcinoma with metastasis. All the 14 cases had pre-existing risk factors like immunosuppresion, cancer or chronic disease. There was no consensus on choice of antimicrobial agents to be used. Different species of lactobacilli were involved. Available susceptibility data showed that lactobacilli species were more susceptible to ampicillin, erythromycin, gentamycin, and clindamycin and decreased to ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin and trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole. Isolation of Lactobacillus species from a case of pleuro-pneumonia infection could be a marker of poor long-term prognosis. The diagnosis of these infections requires both microbiologist and clinical correlation to rule out contamination.
Keywords: Ampicillin; Bacteraemia; Commensals; Immunosuppression.