Non-Antibiotic-Associated Pseudomembranous Colitis Due to Toxin-Producing Clostridia

Excerpt

In recent years pseudomembranous colitis has most often been described in a setting of antibiotic therapy. Recent studies have implicated toxin-producing clostridia organisms in the intestine in the pathogenesis of antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis (1-3). Clinical disease has been reported to occur as late as three weeks after discontinuing antibiotic therapy (4). To our knowledge, all but one of the reported cases of pseudomembranous colitis in which the clostridia toxin has been found in fecal extracts have occurred in the setting of antibiotic therapy. This report describes a previously healthy woman who was found to have pseudomembranous colitis without known exposure