Total Knee Arthroplasty Complicated by Corynebacterium jeikeium Infection

Abstract

Corynebacterium jeikeium is a slow-growing multiresistant micro-organism. It causes serious opportunistic infections in patients with long hospital stays who receive broad-spectrum antibiotics. It can be isolated from blood and other sites in neutropenic, immunosuppressed bone marrow recipients and in patients with indwelling catheters. Cases of infection related to bone and joint replacements are rare. This case is the first where Corynebacterium jeikeium has been isolated from an infected knee following total knee arthroplasty.