Serious Infections Caused by Multiply-Resistant <i>Enterococcus faecium</i>

Abstract

Three liver transplant patients developed serious intraabdominal infections and recurrent bacteremias due to strains of Enterococcus faecium with high-level resistance to vancomycin. The enterococci were also resistant to all other antibacterials except pristinamycin, which, given orally, proved ineffective. One strain was sensitive to tetracycline. Increasingly, clinicians are likely to encounter infections caused by multiply-resistant enterococci, and these cases illustrate the seriousness of such infections in compromised patients.