To the Editor.—
Mycobacterium fortuitum, a rapidly growing mycobacterium of Ruyon's group IV, was reported to be a pathogenic organism by da Costa in 1938.1The most frequent human diseases caused by M fortuitum are cutaneous or soft-tissue infections, usually preceded by injections, trauma, or surgery. Other possibilities are pulmonary infections in previously damaged lungs, corneal infections, and bacillemia from contaminated prostheses or catheters.2-6We report a case of disseminated M fortuitum infection with multiple cutaneous nodular lesions.
Report of a Case.—
A 77-year-old woman was admitted to La Paz Hospital (Madrid) because of nodular cutaneous lesions on the abdomen and extremities, fever, asthenia, Fig 1.—Multiple nodular inflammatory lesions on thigh. Fig 2.—Granulomatous and abscessed inflammatory infiltration on the subcutaneous tissue (hematoxylin-eosin, ×10). anorexia, and a 10-kg weight loss in the last two months. Three years before, a pacemaker was implanted because of acute heart block. Shortly after