Yersinia pseudotuberculosis mesenteric adenitis

Abstract

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, one of the most ubiquitous of animal pathogens, is world wide in distribution. Several hundred isolations of this organism have been made from the mesenteric lymph nodes of European and Scandinavian children who presented with fever, vomiting, right lower quadrant pain, and leukocytosis. A suppurative ileocecal lymphadenitis is commonly found at operation; the appendix is rarely involved. Recovery is usually spontaneous and uneventful without antibiotic therapy. Septicemia, typhoidal syndromes, acute and chronic diarrheal disease, terminal ileitis, arthritis, and erythema nodosum have all been associated with infection with Y. pseudotuberculosis and the closely related Y. enterocolitica. Although Yersinia organisms are readily grown by standard culturing techniques, they are easily confused with other, more common, nonpathogenic Enterobacteriaceae and thus ignored or overlooked.