Isolation of Eikenella corrodens from pulmonary infections.

Eikenella corrodens is a capnophilic gram-negative rod that is part of the normal human oral flora. We report the isolation of E. corrodens by transtracheal aspiration or percutaneous aspiration from 7 patients with pneumonia and/or lung abscess. Four of the 7 patients had an associated carcinoma of the lung. The susceptibilities of strains were tested to penicillin, dicloxacillin, clindamycin, and 10 cephalosporins. All strains were very susceptible to penicillin and cefoxitin and resistant to dicloxacillin and clindamycin. Susceptibilities of strains to the cephalosporins were variable. E. corrodens has been increasingly identified as a pathogen and should be recognized as an etiologic agent of pneumonia, especially in cases not responding to therapy with a penicillinase-resistant penicillin, clindamycin, or cephalosporin.