Kocuria Species Infections in Humans—A Narrative Review

Kocuria species are catalase-positive and coagulase-negative Gram-positive coccoid bacteria that belong to the family Micrococcaceae, order Actinomycetales, and class Actinobacteria. Even though they may be relatively rare, they have been increasingly reported as the causes of human infections lately. The present study aims to review all published cases of Kocuria spp. infections in humans reporting data on epidemiology, microbiology, antimicrobial susceptibility, antimicrobial treatment, and mortality. A narrative review was performed based on a search of Pubmed and Scopus databases in the literature. In total, 73 studies provided data on 102 patients with Kocuria spp. infections. The mean age of patients was 47 years, and 68.3% were male. The most common types of infection were bacteremia (36.3%), skin and soft tissue infection (18.6%), endophthalmitis (15.7%), infective endocarditis (13.7%), and peritonitis (11.8%), most commonly peritoneal–dialysis-associated. The most frequently isolated species was K. kristinae (46.1%), and antimicrobial resistance was lower for vancomycin (7%) and tetracyclines (6.7%). Vancomycin (47%), cephalosporins (39.6%), and quinolones (36.6%) were the most commonly used antimicrobials. The empirical antimicrobial treatment of Kocuria spp. infections should include vancomycin as long as antimicrobial susceptibility results are pending. The infection outcome mainly depends on the type of infection and is higher for infective endocarditis. Endophthalmitis is associated with increased rates of low visual acuity after treatment.