Aortic endograft infection by Mycobacterium abscessus subsp. massiliense with acquired clarithromycin resistance: a case report

Mycobacterium abscessus subsp. massiliense (MMA) comprises a group of non-tuberculous, rapidly growing mycobacteria. Although MMA can cause pulmonary diseases, surgical site infections, and disseminated diseases, aortic endograft infection has not been reported. Here, we describe the first case of aortic endograft infection caused by MMA.

Two months after stent-graft insertion for an abdominal aortic aneurysm, an 85-year-old man was admitted with fever and abdominal pain and was diagnosed with aortic endograft infection. Despite 14 days of meropenem and vancomycin intravenous administration, periaortic fluid pooling increased as compared to that before antibiotic administration. The abscess was drained, and fluorescent acid-fast staining of the abscess fluid revealed bacilli. We conducted genetic tests on the genes hsp65, rpoB, and sodA, performed Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), and identified the organism as MMA. Intravenous imipenem–cilastatin (IPM/CS), amikacin (AMK), and oral clarithromycin (CAM) were administered. After 2 months, oral CAM and sitafloxacin were administered because the abscess had decreased in size. However, after 6 weeks, the abscess increased in size again. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of the drainage fluid from the abscess resulted in the isolation of an MMA strain that had acquired resistance to CAM. Intravenous IPM/CS, AMK, and oral linezolid were added to the treatment regimen along with oral CAM and STFX. However, he was not fully cured and died 6 months later. Neither the full-length erythromycin ribosome methyltransferase (erm)(41) gene nor the rrl or rpIV gene mutations were found by Sanger sequencing in the pre- and post-treatment strains. Whole-genome sequence analysis of the post-treatment strain revealed mutations in genes with no previous reports of association with macrolide resistance.

Aortic endograft infection caused by MMA strain is extremely rare; nonetheless, MMA should be suspected as the causative microorganism when broad-spectrum antimicrobials are ineffective.