Copyright
©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis due to Edwardsiella tarda in an immuno-compromised dialysis patient: A case report and review of literature
Daisuke Usuda, Daiki Furukawa, Rikako Imaizumi, Rikuo Ono, Yuki Kaneoka, Eri Nakajima, Masashi Kato, Yuto Sugawara, Runa Shimizu, Tomotari Inami, Kenji Kawai, Shun Matsubara, Risa Tanaka, Makoto Suzuki, Shintaro Shimozawa, Yuta Hotchi, Ippei Osugi, Risa Katou, Sakurako Ito, Kentaro Mishima, Akihiko Kondo, Keiko Mizuno, Hiroki Takami, Takayuki Komatsu, Tomohisa Nomura, Manabu Sugita
Daisuke Usuda, Daiki Furukawa, Rikako Imaizumi, Rikuo Ono, Yuki Kaneoka, Eri Nakajima, Masashi Kato, Yuto Sugawara, Runa Shimizu, Tomotari Inami, Kenji Kawai, Shun Matsubara, Risa Tanaka, Makoto Suzuki, Shintaro Shimozawa, Yuta Hotchi, Ippei Osugi, Risa Katou, Sakurako Ito, Kentaro Mishima, Akihiko Kondo, Keiko Mizuno, Hiroki Takami, Takayuki Komatsu, Tomohisa Nomura, Manabu Sugita, Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Juntendo University Nerima Hospital, Nerima 177-8521, Tokyo, Japan
Takayuki Komatsu, Department of Sports Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Juntendo University, Bunkyo 113-8421, Tokyo, Japan
Author contributions: Usuda D wrote the manuscript; Furukawa D, Imaizumi R, Ono R, Kaneoka Y, Kato M, Sugawara Y, Shimizu R, Inami T, Kawai K, Matsubara S, Tanaka R, Suzuki M, Shimozawa S, Hotchi Y, Osugi I, Katou R, Ito S, Mishima K, Kondo A, Mizuno K, Takami H, Komatsu T, Nomura T, and Sugita M proofread and revised the manuscript; All authors approved the final version to be published.
Supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI Grant, No. JP24K15491.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from surety of the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. Both written and verbally informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Daisuke Usuda, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Emer
gency and Critical Care Medicine, Juntendo University Nerima Hospital, 3-1-10, Takanodai, Nerima 177-8521, Tokyo, Japan.
d.usuda.qa@juntendo.ac.jp
Received: October 13, 2025
Revised: November 5, 2025
Accepted: December 15, 2025
Published online: January 6, 2026
Processing time: 89 Days and 17.5 Hours
BACKGROUND
Edwardsiella tarda (E. tarda) belongs to the family Enterobacteriaceae and is generally seen to cause infections mainly in fish, but is also capable of infecting humans. Extraintestinal infections occur in patients with certain risk factors, including immunocompromised status. We recently diagnosed a case of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) due to E. tarda in an immuno-compromised dialysis patient.
CASE SUMMARY
Patient was a 55-year-old male, with a history of diabetic nephropathy being treated with hemodialysis three times a week. He was referred to our hospital due to an increased volume of ascites, and blood examination revealed increased inflammatory reaction. At our emergency department, he developed fever, disturbance of consciousness, abdominal distension, and abdomen-wide pain. In addition, a dialysis shunt was confirmed in his right forearm, and the shunt site showed no signs of inflammation. No wounds were confirmed on or in his body. A blood examination revealed increased values of white blood cells, C-reactive protein, and creatinine. Plain chest and abdominal computed tomography scanning revealed increased ascites volume. Abdominal paracentesis was performed and a Gram stain revealed Gram-negative bacillus. These findings prompted diagnosis of SBP. The patient was admitted and treated with cefmetazole, causing fever resolution and symptom improvements. Later, E. tarda was identified in ascites culture. The patient improved with decreased inflammatory response and was discharged on the 12th day of hospitalization. The antibiotic was terminated after 14 days of treatment. SBP in this case may have developed from chronic renal failure and diabetes mellitus.
CONCLUSION
We report the first known case of SBP due to E. tarda in an immuno-compromised dialysis patient.
Core Tip: Edwardsiella tarda (E. tarda) belongs to the family Enterobacteriaceae and causes infections mainly in fish but is also capable of causing both localized and systemic infections in humans. Extraintestinal infections occur in patients with certain risk factors, including immuno-compromised status, and chronic kidney diseases or diabetes mellitus. In the immuno-compromised or patients with significant underlying disease who have extraintestinal disease, prognosis is related to the extent of infection and the ability for source control. We present the first known case of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis due to E. tarda in an immuno-compromised dialysis patient.
