An outbreak of Mycobacterium fortuitum cutaneous infection associated with mesotherapy

Abstract

We describe an outbreak of Mycobacterium fortuitum cutaneous infections associated with mesotherapy in La Rioja, Spain. Descriptive epidemiology. Private practice. Case subjects were customers of a single beauty salon who were treated with mesotherapy injections. Two skin biopsies were taken from each patient. Over the designated period, 138 women received mesotherapy. Of these women, 39, or 28.3%, developed lesions ultimately thought to be caused by Mycobacterium fortuitum infection. The number of lesions per patient varied from 3 to 20 in the most severe case. Most of the lesions were indurated, erythematous or violaceous papules, some progressing to become fluctuant boils with suppuration, fistulization and scarring. The individual lesions varied in diameter from 0.5 to 6 cm. Two patients (5.1%) developed inguinal or axillary adenopathy. Two others presented with fever. One reported muscular pain. In 12 of the 39 cases, M. fortuitum was isolated from the wound cultures. The patients were all successfully treated with clarithromycin and levofloxacin. We identified a large outbreak of rapidly growing mycobacterial lesions among women who received mesotherapy injections in a single beauty salon.