Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL) Skin Abscesses in Children and Adolescents Diagnostic and Treatment: A Case Report

Abstract

Katharina Schulte and Rizwan Attia

Panton–Valentine leukocidin is a cytotoxin, which is associated with an increased virulence of isolates of Staphylococcus aurous. It can cause necrotic dermal lesions or recurrent skin abscesses and in rare cases necrotic haemorrhagic pneumonia. In our case a 15-year-old immunocompetent male was seen in the emergency department complaining of a painful tibial swelling. He had been travelling to South East Asia a year ago and had been suffering from multiple skin abscesses since then. Clinically, a tibial abscess was diagnosed and operatively excised the same day. The postoperative course of the patients was uneventful. In the microbiological analysis a methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aurous was isolated and the presence of lukF-lukS genes for Panton–Valentine leukocidin was determined. In order to avoid further spread of the cytotoxin the patient underwent an ambulant antibiotic eradication therapy with Cotrimoxazole 960mg twice daily for 5 days along with a decolonisation. An infection with Panton–Valentine leukocidin should be suspected diagnosed and treated in young immunocompetent patients with recurrent cutaneous abscesses or affected contacts.

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