[Gram-negative septicemia and bacteremia in an internal medicine department].

Among 31 patients with positive blood cultures for gram-negative bacilli seen in a department of internal medicine, 13 had at least 3 positive blood cultures from samples taken over more than 12 hours and were diagnosed as having septicemia (group I) ; 18 patients had less than three positive blood cultures over the same period or had several positive blood cultures over a shorter period and were diagnosed as having bacteremia (group II). There were no significant differences between these two groups concerning age, sex, fever, other clinical features, or biological findings. E. coli was recovered in 70 % of cases and was almost always related to urinary infection. 8 patients died (3 in group I, 5 in group II), 6 of whom had cirrhosis. The sensitivity of the pathogens to the main antibiotics is described. The most often used antibiotic combination was ampicillin-gentamycin. It is suggested that in departments receiving patients from outside the hospital rather than from intensive care units the ampicillin-gentamycin combination can be advocated as the first treatment. As there were no significant differences between patients with septicemia or bacteremia, in severe infections a single positive blood culture should be taken into account and discrimination between septicemia and bacteremia is useless.