RESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: Clostridium tertium septicaemia, although usually described in neutropenic patients, can also occur in the absence of neutropenia, as in our case report. OBSERVATION: A 61 year-old woman presented with pain in the right hypochondrium and epigastrium, constipation and vomiting that led to the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis of biliary origin. During septic shock, analysis of the liquid of an intra-abdominal mass and the results of the blood cultures revealed a Gram positive bacillus identified as C. tertium. During laparotomy, necrotic-hemorrhagic acute pancreatitis lesions were found with subtotal colic necrosis. Analysis of the peritoneal fluid revealed C. tertium. The patient died on D 46 after several nosocomial pneumopathies without identification of C. tertium. DISCUSSION: Three factors appear related to the onset of C. tertium septicaemia: neutropenia, lesions of the intestinal mucosa and previous treatment with 3rd generation, broad spectrum, cephalosporins. Such septicaemias are rare in immunocompetent patients and do not appear to have been reported before in a context of acute pancreatitis.