This is a study of 54 intravenous drug user's (IVDUs) with infected pseudoaneurysms undergoing ligation and debridement at the Vascular Unit, Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) from February 1993 to February 1996. The median age was 37 years with a male preponderance (53:1). Chinese form the largest ethnic group with 57.4% of the cases. Staphylococcus aureus was the most common organism cultured. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive cases numbered 21 (38.9%). Four of the patients had to have an above-knee amputation after surgery. Simple ligation and debridement of all necrotic tissue is an acceptable mode of therapy in these patients with low amputation rates.
Melioidosis is a protean disease which is endemic to Southeast Asia and northern Australia. Here, we report a case of infected aortic aneurysm due to Burkholderia pseudomallei in an immunocompetent man 6 months after a trip to northern Malaysia. This patient initially received inappropriate surgical and antibiotic treatment, leading to a peri-prosthetic aortic infection with lumbar spondylitis and contiguous psoas muscle abscess. This case highlights the difficulty of diagnosing melioidosis given its diverse clinical manifestations and the limits of routine microbiological methods to identify B. pseudomallei Melioidosis should be considered a possible diagnosis in individuals with unexplained fever subsequent to travel in an endemic area.