Septic Shock with Chlamydia Pneumoniae Secondary to Prostatic Abscess: A Rare Case Report

Abstract

Prostatic abscesses are a rare clinical entity in current practice due to the widespread use of antibiotics. Management usually imposes a challenge to urologists that is due to the difficult diagnosis, as it may mimic other diseases of the lower urinary tract and the lack of guidelines for treatment. Prostate abscess (PA) usually develops in immunocompromised patients, including diabetic and HIV patients, as a consequence of acute bacterial prostatitis. The reason for the lack of guidelines as regards PA is that most of the published data in the literature are case reports due to the declining incidence of the disease today. We presented a male patient who was not foreknown with pathological or personal antecedents or a promiscuous lifestyle. He was hospitalized in the urology section with subfebrility and lumbar pain. His general condition changed rapidly within the span of a few hours, the patient entering septic shock without an etiology or a determined infection. After careful serial investigations, hemocultures (atypical germs) for IgM antibodies Chlamydia Pneumoniae were found in the serological complement fixation (cf) test. The patient responded well to empirically initiated antibiotic treatment upon admission to Intensive Care. Due to a favorable evolution, the patient was declared clinically healthy upon discharge. This was a rare case in medical literature of septic shock of initially unspecified etiology but which, upon thorough investigations and urological reevaluation, revealed a prostatic abscess with Chlamydia Pneumoniae, exteriorized through the urethra and highlighted through positive hemocultures only.