{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,27]],"date-time":"2025-08-27T14:40:20Z","timestamp":1756305620179,"version":"3.44.0"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"11","content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["BMJ Case Rep"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,29]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,11]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                  <jats:italic>Helcococcus kunzii<\/jats:italic> is a Gram-positive anaerobic facultative coccus that colonises the skin. Human infection is rare, with very few cases being described in the literature. The authors present the case of a 17-year-old man, with a history of cholesteatoma, diagnosed with mastoiditis complicated by intracranial empyema. After urgent surgical drainage, Gram staining revealed a Gram-negative bacillus and a Gram-positive coccus. The latter exhibited fastidious growth, presented as small grey colonies in blood agar, and was afterwards identified as <jats:italic>H. kunzii<\/jats:italic>. The patient was started on intravenous antibiotics, switched to oral route after 8 weeks and fully recovered. To the best of our knowledge, this is the third case of an intracranial infection in which <jats:italic>H. kunzii<\/jats:italic> is involved, two of them occurring in patients with cholesteatoma.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/bcr-2021-244600","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,9]],"date-time":"2021-11-09T11:25:59Z","timestamp":1636457159000},"page":"e244600","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["<i>Helcococcus kunzii<\/i>, a skin-colonising microorganism with pathogenic capacity: a case of polymicrobial intracranial empyema"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8944-8412","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Margarida","family":"Mouro","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbiology Laboratory, Clinical Pathology Department, Coimbra Hospital and University Center EPE, Coimbra, Portugal"},{"name":"Infectious Diseases Department, Baixo Vouga Hospital Center EPE, Aveiro, Portugal"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jo\u00e3o","family":"Frade","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbiology Laboratory, Clinical Pathology Department, Coimbra Hospital and University Center EPE, Coimbra, Portugal"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Catarina","family":"Chaves","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbiology Laboratory, Clinical Pathology Department, Coimbra Hospital and University Center EPE, Coimbra, Portugal"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jorge","family":"Velez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Infectious Diseases Department, Baixo Vouga Hospital Center EPE, Aveiro, Portugal"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025082707070208000_14.11.e244600.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1099\/00207713-43-3-425"},{"key":"2025082707070208000_14.11.e244600.2","unstructured":"Christensen JJ , Nielsen XC , Ruoff KL . Aerococcus, abiotrophia, and other aerobic catalase-negative, gram-positive cocci. In: Carroll KC , Pfaller MA , Landry ML , eds. Manual of clinical microbiology. 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