Postoperative Herzinfektion mit M. fortuitum

Shortly after an open-heart operation a 5 year-old girl died of an infection caused by M. fortuitum. Strains of this species are often isolated from human specimens, but generally they are not correlated with pulmonary tuberculosis. Nevertheless M. fortuitum produces relatively often infections after transplantations of different kind. The diagnosis is difficult to find, especially because nobody thinks of the possibility that a rapid growing mycobacterium is able to cause such infections. — The therapy is very problematical. That is why these infections are not seldom fatal.