Enteral feeds contaminated with Enterobacter cloacae as a cause of septicaemia

Abstract

Artificial enteral feeds are increasingly used for patients with severe catabolic states associated with, for example, bowel pathology, burns, infection, and malignancy. One advantage claimed for using this route is the “virtual absence of the risk of infection.”Despite our previous study which showed that contaminated enteral feeds were a source of Klebsiella spp for intensive care patients,2 a recent Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin on enteral feeding does not mention the hazard of infection. We report on a patient with septicaemia caused by Enterobacter cloacae derived from enteral feeds that had been contaminated by a detergent dispenser in a diet kitchen. © 1981, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.