2021 Sep 28. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2021 Jan–.
ABSTRACT
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a gram-negative bacillus, initially called Bacterium bookeri, when it was first identified in 1943 from a specimen of human pleural fluid. It was later classified as Pseudomonas maltophilia in 1961, then reassigned to the gammaproteobacteria class as Xanthomonas maltophilia in 1983, and eventually classified as a Stenotrophomonas in 199. The name has Greek roots meaning “The narrow feeder - that loves malt.” The whole-genome sequence of representative isolate K279a genome sequence was published in 2008.
S. maltophilia can be considered a “newly emerging pathogen of concern” that is being isolated more frequently. It is also recognized as one of the underestimated important multi-drug resistant organisms in hospitals by the World Health Organization (WHO). It was ranked as the ninth most important one per British microbiologists and one of the challenging pathogens in the infectious disease community and studies. It is widely known as an opportunistic organism associated with high morbidity and mortality rates among immunocompromised patients.