Meningitis and bacteremia due to Bacillus cereus. A case report and a review of Bacillus infections.

A patient with meningitis and bacteremia due to Bacillus cereus is described. The patient had transsphenoidal hypophysectomy for chromophobe adenoma, complicated by rhinorrhea, which was corrected by subarachnoid drainage. Three weeks after removal of the drain, the patient presented with meningitis and died the following day. The causative organism was identified as B. cereus. The literature on Bacillus infections is reviewed with special attention to severe infections. A modified classification is proposed, dividing infections into superficial, closed-space and systemic ones. Sixty-one previously reported cases of systemic Bacillus infections are reviewed according to type of infection (endocarditis, meningitis or pulmonary infection), and the underlying conditions, ways of acquiring the infection, clinical picture and mortality are discussed.