While the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of Enterococcus faecalis and E. faecium bacteremia are well known, those of E. durans bacteremia are still largely unclear. We retrospectively identified 80 adult E. durans bacteremia cases treated at our 2700-bed tertiary care hospital between January 1997 and December 2016. We compared the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of the adult patients with E. durans bacteremia (case group) with those of E. faecalis and E. faecium bacteremia cases (two control groups). The case and control groups were matched for sex, age, and date of onset of bacteremia. E. durans was responsible for 1.2% of all enterococcal bacteremia cases at our hospital. Of 80 cases, 39 (48.8%) had biliary tract infection and 18 (22.5%) had urinary tract infection. Community-onset bacteremia was more frequent in the case group than in the control groups (56.2% vs. 35.0% vs. 21.2%, p < 0.01). Infective endocarditis tended to be more common in the E. durans group (7.5% vs. 1.2% vs. 1.2%, p = 0.05). The majority of E. durans isolates were susceptible to penicillin (66/76, 86.8%), ampicillin (67/76, 88.2%), and vancomycin (75/76, 98.7%). The case group had significantly lower all-cause mortality (20.0% vs. 31.2% vs. 42.5%, p < 0.01) and bacteremia-related mortality (2.5% vs. 16.2% vs. 18.8%, p < 0.01) than the control groups. E. durans bacteremia mainly originates from the biliary or urinary tract and is associated with a lower risk of mortality.
Keywords: Bacteremia; Enterococcus durans; Enterococcus faecalis; Enterococcus faecium; Mortality.