TITLE:
Acute Suppurative Abscess Caused by Actinotignum schaalii
AUTHORS:
Edward Ager, Maha Soliman, Jude Abadie
KEYWORDS:
Neck Abscess, Bruker MALDI-TOF, Gram Positive Coccobacillus, Facultative Anaerobe, Actinotignum schaalii, Actinobaculum schaalii
JOURNAL NAME:
Case Reports in Clinical Medicine,
Vol.15 No.8,
August
14,
2026
ABSTRACT: Actinotignum schaalii is a pathogen that has been generally associated with urinary tract infections. Here we report a finding of A. schaalii found in a specimen from the drainage of a neck abscess in a 49-year-old male who was initially seen for a post-surgical follow-up visit for a surgical procedure on his foot. A gram-positive bacteria was isolated from drainage taken from the neck abscess and then characterized by Bruker MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. As is consistent with other reports, this fastidious bacteria was an unexpected finding and was likely a causative pathogen that could have been missed using traditional microbiology laboratory testing procedures not incorporating the Bruker MALDI-TOF.