Clostridium Difficile-associated Diseases. The Clinical Courses of 18 Fatal Cases

Objective: Severe cases of Clostridium difficile-associated diseases with sepsis seem to be rare, as are case reports about the pathogen involved and sepsis. Our objective was to investigate the frequency and the clinical courses of severe cases of C. difficile-associated diseases with a fatal outcome in our hospital.

Setting: Teaching hospital of the University of Kiel (650 beds).

Design: We reviewed retrospectively all deceased patients' charts who had prior histological or microbiological evidence of C. difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) and revised the available histological specimens of the autopsies.

Patients: Over a 4-year period (November 1994-October 1998) we diagnosed 304 cases of C. difficile-associated diseases in our hospital.

Results: Eighteen of our cases with C. difficile-associated diseases had a fatal outcome. C. difficile was not likely to be the cause of death in two of the cases. Four of the fatal infections were community-acquired and the reason for admission to the hospital. CDAD is most prevalent in elderly patients with multiple or severe underlying diseases and tends to be overlooked. Sepsis was diagnosed in 15 of our 18 patients with C. difficile-associated diseases.

Conclusion: Our study shows that severe cases of CDAD or cases with C. difficile-associated sepsis are probably not rare. Routine testing of fecal specimens for the presence of C. difficile toxins should be considered not only in nosocomial gastrointestinal infections but also in community-acquired gastrointestinal infections of elderly people.