Infant botulism: casuistries in 10 years in a tertiary hospital

Abstract

Introduction Infant botulism is a rare and life-threatening infectious disease. It consists of neuroparalytic syndrome resulting from the action of a neurotoxin elaborated by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. It mainly affects children under one year of age, and the severity is variable.The first case was described in 1976 and since then, more cases have been described. However, its incidence is probably underestimated. Clinical cases This study describes a series of cases of infant botulism in a spanish third level hospital during the period from 2008 to 2018. The clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic features of each one have been analyzed. In addition, a review of the literature on this disease has been carried out.