Breast Abscesses Caused by Anaerobic Microorganisms: Clinical and Microbiological Characteristics

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to report the antimicrobial susceptibility of 35 clinically significant anaerobic bacteria isolated from breast abscesses between March 2017 and February 2020 in a tertiary hospital in Granada (Spain) and to describe key clinical features of the patients. Species identification was performed mainly by MALDI-TOF MS. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests were carried out against benzylpenicillin, amoxicillin–clavulanic acid, imipenem, moxifloxacin, clindamycin, metronidazole, and piperacillin–tazobactam using the gradient diffusion technique and European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing EUCAST breakpoints (except for moxifloxacin). The most frequent anaerobes were Finegoldia magna (31.4%; n = 11), Actinomyces spp. (17.1%; n = 6), Propionibacterium spp. (17.1%; n = 6), and Prevotella spp. (14.2%; n = 5). Imipenem, amoxicillin–clavulanic acid, and piperacillin–tazobactam were universally active against all genera tested. High overall resistance rates to clindamycin were observed, especially for Gram-positive anaerobic cocci (56.2%) and Gram-positive anaerobic bacilli (38.4%). High resistance rates to metronidazole were also observed for Gram-positive (76.9%) and Gram-negative anaerobic bacilli (50%). High resistance rates to moxifloxacin were found for Gram-negative anaerobic bacilli (50%) and Gram-positive anaerobic cocci (31.2%). No breast abscess cases of Bacteroides spp. were detected. Routine antimicrobial susceptibility testing for anaerobes in breast abscesses may contribute to allow empirical therapies to be selected in accordance with local data on resistant strains.