Description
Mycoplasma salivarium is found in the mouths of 97% of the healthy population, and is generally considered to be a commensal organism and part of the normal oral flora.
M. salivarium has, however, been implicated in eye and ear disorders, oral infection, septic arthritis and periodontal disease. This species has been isolated from synovial fluid from patients with chronic arthritis and from primates. It has been recovered from a biliary stent. It also was recovered from the pleural cavity of a hospitalized man who did not respond to the normal treatment of conventional antibiotics. And it has been cultured from brain abscesses.[8] It has also been recently identified as a common finding in patients with ventilator-acquired pneumonia, a severe infection which can occur in patients in the intensive care unit, and it may play a role in dampening down the immune response to other pathogens so allowing opportunistic infection to develop.
