The diagnosis of staphylococcus enterocolitis was not made on the surgical service of the Veterans Administration Research Hospital from the opening of the hospital in 1953 until 1959. Ten patients, seven of whom died, seen during 1959 and 1960, have been previously reported.8 Since then there have been eight cases, the last six of which were managed without a fatality. The entire series of eighteen patients is analyzed in this report.
Staphylococcus enterocolitis is an inflammatory condition of the small and large intestine characterized by profuse exudation into the bowel lumen, enterotoxic shock, and the presence of coagulase-positive hemolytic Staphylococcus aureus often in pure culture in the stool. Other names for the disease which are given in the literature are pseudomembranous enterocolitis, membranous enterocolitis, diphtheritic enteritis, staphylococcal enteritis, micrococcic enteritis, and antibiotic enteritis.
Some authors state that pseudomembranous enterocolitis is an uncommon entity with multiple etiologic factors often unrelated