Causes of death and the histopathologic findings in fatal shigellosis

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Abstract
Thirty-seven children (median age, 2 years) with shigellosis in Bangladesh were subjected to postmortem examination to determine causes of death and the spectrum of intestinal histopathology. Infecting species were: Shigella dysenteriae 1, 7 cases; S. dysenteriae 2, 2 cases; Shigella flexneri, 23 cases; Shigella boydii, 4 cases; and mixed infection with Shigella boydii and Shigella sonnei, 1 case. Complicating conditions detected before death included malnutrition in 25 cases, pneumonia in 11 cases and septicemia in 8 cases. In all 37 cases the colon showed gross colitis, consisting of mucosal erythema and edema; superficial ulcerations were visible in 15 cases. Microscopically in the colon the lamina propria showed inflammatory cellular infiltration in 27 cases and crypt abscesses were present in 22 cases. In 9 cases each there were colonic glands in the submucosa and branching of colonic crypts, indicating increased regenerative activity of crypt cells. Severe lesions were mucosal denudation and deep ulceration in 15 cases with a pseudomembrane in 7 and pseudopolyposis in 2 of these patients. The most common underlying cause of death was colitis, whereas the most common immediate and associated causes were, respectively, septicemia and pneumonia. These results indicated that fatal childhood shigellosis resulted from severe colitis, often complicated by septicemia and concomitant malnutrition and pneumonia.