[Pleuropulmonary disease caused by Pasteurella multocida. Study of 9 cases. Review of the literature].

Nine cases of pleuro-pulmonary infection due to Pasteurella multocida were observed over an 11 year-period (1974-1984) occurring in seven men and two women, with a mean age of 65 (range: 47-80 years). There were 4 pneumonias and 5 cases of empyema, occurring on three occasions after septicemia. There was a background of depressed immunity in 7 cases: alcoholic cirrhosis (4 cases), blood dyscrasias (2 cases), breast cancer (1 case); and of a chronic broncho-pulmonary pathology in two cases. Animal inoculation was present in six cases but only one case of pneumonia followed injury by an animal (cat scratch). The clinical, radiological and epidemiological data of these nine cases were similar to those in the literature (forty-five published cases). There was a zero mortality in our (from 30%) in the literature. Pasteurella multocida is an opportunistic organism, noncommensal in man, producing pulmonary infections in subjects with generalised or localised diminished resistance, the portal of entry being airborne (indirect animal contact) or haematogenous. The organism is nearly always sensitive to Penicillin and other B-lactamines. The gravity of infections to Pasteurella multocida relates to the degree of decompensation or severity of the underlying disorder.