Lethal acute amigdalitis caused by Streptococcus pyogenes

DOI: 10.15343/0104-7809.200933.1.16

Abstract

Streptococcus pyogenes is a gram positive bacterium that constitutes the main cause of pharyngoamigdalitis in adults and
children. Acute streptococcal amigdalitis cases are more frequent at cold times of the year, being contagious through direct contact
with secretions of the respiratory tract. Frequently they are controllable. However, from the primary oropharyngeal focus of infection,
it may affect different organs and tissues of the organism, causing serious suppurative complications. The present study aimed to describe
two clinical cases of patients with acute amigdalitis who developed septicemia and died: one of the patients was a child and the
other an adult. In both cases, S. pyogenes was isolated in blood culture and the patients came to die due to septicemia. Although direct
association between the cases cannot be made, one may conclude that bacterial oropharyngeal infections must be treated as earlier as
possible and that they require us to consider the aggressive potential of some lineages of S. pyogenes in cases that last more than five
days or present an atypical clinical evolution.