Haemophilus influenzae

[MMC]

DS13 had a T&A on 6/15. The culture of his tonsils did not show strep, but did show Haemophilus influenzae. I am just starting to research what this bug is. Has anyone seen this in a tonsil culture from their PANDAS child? Or heard a PANDAS doc talk about it? I am going to search the forum. We were actually hoping strep would be found, which would have better explained his chronic PANDAS (over 3 years)...but maybe this bacteria has caused it as well. Now, we are trying to schedule plasmapheresis with Dr L.

[Kimflow]

MMC.....our tonsillectomy was completed on May 30th. Our tonsil cultures came back with heavy growth alpha-strep, heavy growth gramp ositive rods(other wise known as corynebacterium, pseudodiptheria)., heavy growth nonpathogenic neisseria, heavy growth strep constellatus.

 

Regarding the HI(is that the same HIB that they vaccinate for????) I wondered when the pseudodiptheria showed up. I haven't had much time to research much but this stuff isn't normal flora I don't think or if it is, it takes over in immunocompromised. And heavy alpha strep STILL AFTER 3 months of various courses of uninterrupted antibiotics.

 

Two questions for you:

 

Did he flare from the tonsillectomy? We did and it is awful to be in this position again. I even had Ancef 1 gm infused but it didn't treat all the bugs in his tonsils that were released during surgery I guess. The good news is that from the culture we were able to change some antiobiotics to hopefully treat what was released better. So far, not much improvement though. Just gave us loose stools :-( again.

 

Second, why is Dr. L doing PEX and not IVIG? Do you know what the flowchart for that decision making is....IVIG versus PEX?

 

thanks

[philamom]

DS13 had a T&A on 6/15. The culture of his tonsils did not show strep, but did show Haemophilus influenzae. I am just starting to research what this bug is. Has anyone seen this in a tonsil culture from their PANDAS child? Or heard a PANDAS doc talk about it? I am going to search the forum. We were actually hoping strep would be found, which would have better explained his chronic PANDAS (over 3 years)...but maybe this bacteria has caused it as well. Now, we are trying to schedule plasmapheresis with Dr L.

I'm pretty sure dr b checked my daughter's immunity at her first appointment. She had no immunity. I will check when I get home.

[airial95]

We had the same culture results as you - negative for strep but positive for H. influenza. Not sure what it means...

[tpotter]

DS13 had a T&A on 6/15. The culture of his tonsils did not show strep, but did show Haemophilus influenzae. I am just starting to research what this bug is. Has anyone seen this in a tonsil culture from their PANDAS child? Or heard a PANDAS doc talk about it? I am going to search the forum. We were actually hoping strep would be found, which would have better explained his chronic PANDAS (over 3 years)...but maybe this bacteria has caused it as well. Now, we are trying to schedule plasmapheresis with Dr L.

 

 

Bacterial influenza. Just because it's not specifically PANDAS doesn't mean it didn't cause his symptoms. It would describe PITANDs (Infection triggered), and the overall umbrella of PANS. Good luck getting PEX.

[MMC]

Kimflow, he did not flare after T&A, but all symptoms remain, mainly tics are his problem. He has remained on Augmentin 500, twice a day. I also wonder if another abx should be added.

 

Dr L. is doing PEX again, (first was Jan 2010)...b/c his one IVIG (April 2010) did not help and he had really bad side effects. PEX really helped him in Jan, 2010 until he got the swine flu in February. So, we hope we have cleared this infection and now PEX will be more permanent. That is the theory. She also said he should start gaining weight after the T&A. We hope so.

[1tiredmama]

The first ENT that ds saw told me that his tonsils look healthy and removing them was unlikely to be of any benefit. When I discussed Dr. L's reasoning for wanting them out, I was told that all tonsils harbor germs. That all tonsils will culture positively for something. Any thoughts on this?

 

Ds did end up getting his removed by another ENT.

[Kiera]

1tiredmama, I had not heard this? My ds's tonsils showed pseudomonas and both he and his GI Dr wanted a sweat test done to check for cystic fibrosis! (neg BTW). While it's true ENTs don't normally culture all the tonsils they remove, my ENT said he's quite sure that he doesn't have pseudo in his tonsils and quite sure that I don't have pseudo in my tonsils!! But it kinda makes sense, as the tonsils are part of the lymphatic system, who's purpose is to clear infections from the body, but I would imagine they would temporarily harbor the remnants of infection and not be chronically infected. All just speculation on my part though!!