Dog-bite induced sepsis: a report of four cases.

Occasionally, a dog-bite is complicated by a systemic overwhelming infection. We report four consecutive patients who were admitted to our intensive care unit because of sepsis syndrome following dog-bites. The history of these patients did not reveal any immunocompromising conditions. Capnocytophaga canimorsus (C. canimorsus) was cultured from the blood culture of 2 patients. Our data illustrate that in patients with lack of immune-deficiency severe sepsis may develop.