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Enterobacter species are important nosocomial pathogens, and there is growing concern about their ability to develop resistance during antimicrobial therapy. However, few data are available on the clinical characteristics and outcomes of Enterobacter spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP).We retrospectively identified all patients with SBP caused by Enterobacter species admitted to a tertiary care hospital between January 1997 and December 2013. Each case was age- and sex-matched with four patients with Escherichia coli SBP.A total of 32 cases with Enterobacter SBP and 128 controls with E. coli SBP were included. Twenty-one (65.6 %) cases and 111 (86.7 %) controls had Child-Pugh class C (P = 0.006). Cases were significantly more likely to have hepatocellular carcinoma (65.6 % vs. 37.5 %, P = 0.004) and upper gastrointestinal bleeding (28.1 % vs. 9.4 %, P = 0.005). The initial response to empirical therapy (81.3 % vs. 81.2 %, P = 0.995) and the 30-day mortality (37.5 % vs. 28.9 %, P = 0.35) were not significantly different between the groups. Drug resistance emerged in one case and in no controls (4.3 % [1/23] vs. 0 % [0/98], P = 0.19).Compared with E. coli SBP, patients with Enterobacter SBP more frequently had hepatocellular carcinoma and upper gastrointestinal bleeding, yet clinical outcomes were comparable. Development of resistance during third-generation cephalosporin therapy was infrequent in patients with Enterobacter SBP.

Background Enterobacter species are important nosocomial pathogens, and there is growing concern about their ability to develop resistance during antimicrobial therapy. However, few data are available on the clinical characteristics and outcomes of Enterobacter spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP). Methods We retrospectively identified all patients with SBP caused by Enterobacter species admitted to a tertiary care hospital between January 1997 and December 2013. Each case was age- and sex-matched with four patients with Escherichia coli SBP. Results A total of 32 cases with Enterobacter SBP and 128 controls with E. coli SBP were included. Twenty-one (65.6 %) cases and 111 (86.7 %) controls had Child-Pugh class C (P = 0.006). Cases were significantly more likely to have hepatocellular carcinoma (65.6 % vs. 37.5 %, P = 0.004) and upper gastrointestinal bleeding (28.1 % vs. 9.4 %, P = 0.005). The initial response to empirical therapy (81.3 % vs. 81.2 %, P = 0.995) and the 30-day mortality (37.5 % vs. 28.9 %, P = 0.35) were not significantly different between the groups. Drug resistance emerged in one case and in no controls (4.3 % [1/23] vs. 0 % [0/98], P = 0.19). Conclusions Compared with E. coli SBP, patients with Enterobacter SBP more frequently had hepatocellular carcinoma and upper gastrointestinal bleeding, yet clinical outcomes were comparable. Development of resistance during third-generation cephalosporin therapy was infrequent in patients with Enterobacter SBP. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-016-1595-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.