In August 2000, a 54-year-old comatose man was admitted to our infectious diseases department with a 10-day history of fever. He had a medical history of vertebral arthrosis (lumbar laminectomy in 1989) and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Six weeks before, he had received for 3 days gluteal injections with kebusone (an intramuscular nonsteriodal antiinflammatory drug [NSAID]) for acute lower back pain. Twenty-eight days after the first injection, a gluteal abscess developed, which was surgically drained, without perioperative antimicrobial therapy. Three days later, he became febrile, and pyrexia persisted despite local wound management and treatment with oxacillin, 4 g/day for 3 days; cefuroxime, 3 g/day, and gentamicin, 160 mg/day for another 7 days.