Vol.102 No.10 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 102 No. 10 October 2009
A Case of Lemierre Syndrome due to Fusobacterium necrophorum
Yoshiki Watanabe and Juichi Ito
(Kyoto University)
Eriko Hoshi
(Shiga University Of Medical School)
Satoshi Sonoda
(Sonoda Clinic)
We encountered a rare case of Lemierre syndrome. A 38-year-old man visited us due to his severe sore throat, general fatigue, high fever and poor intake of meals. He had slightly red swollen tonsils. Neck computed tomography (CT) showed no parapharyngeal abcess then. So we diagnosed him as peritonsillitis first, and started drip infusion of antibacterials and hydrocortisone to reverse his disease. He evidenced some disturbance in consciousness when seen that continued despite improvement in objective findings. So we put some tests including enhanced CT, magnetic resonance imagind (MRI), bacterial culture and blood studies yielded a diagnosis of Lemiere syndrome as defined by tonsillitis or peritonsillitis/peritonsillar abcess with thrombophlebitis of the jugular vein potentially causing disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and critical damage.
Key words :Lemierre syndrome, Fusobacterium necrophorum, thrombophlebitis of jugular vein