Staphylococcus sciuri: an unusual cause of pelvic inflammatory disease

Abstract

We present the case of polymicrobial pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) that involved Staphylococcus sciuri, S. epidermidis, and Streptococcus agalactiae. In order to determine the frequency of S. sciuri isolation from the female lower genital tract, 3415 vaginal samples were analysed during the one-year study period. S. sciuri was isolated from three (0.09%) samples. In all the three cases, S. sciuri was obtained in mixed culture from outpatients without symptoms of infection. While the origin of S. sciuri in the female genital tract remains to be elucidated, the present study showed that this bacterium may colonize vagina and, moreover, may be involved in the pathogenesis of an infection as serious as PID. The low rate of isolation we established, however, indicates infrequent and, most probably, transient colonization of the female genital tract by S. sciuri.