Pulmonary mucormycosis (Phycomycetes) successfully treated by resection

Bronchovascular mucormycosis in the diabetic: an urgent surgical problem

This report reviews the successful surgical experience with a diabetic patient with bronchial obstruction due to Mucorales infection. A review of the reported medical and surgical experience is included. The danger of a lethal pulmonary hemorrhage makes early surgical intervention mandatory.

Imaging intraabdominal abscesses and nonoperative drainage procedures

With state-of-the-art imaging and interventional techniques, the diagnosis and management of intraabdominal abscesses have improved. Radionuclide scanning, ultrasound, and computed tomography are very accurate for the diagnosis and staging of intraabdominal abscesses, permitting the use of percutaneous drainage methods. Percutaneous abscess drainage (PAD) has gained wide acceptance and applications now include not only curative drainages but also certain palliative ones. Although some controversy exists relative to results and palliative procedures, PAD is now accepted as an effective alternative to operative drainage.

Pulmonary mucormycosis without underlying systemic disease

Mucormycosis (or zygomycosis) is an opportunistic fungal infection which usually is seen in patients who are immunosuppressed or who have diabetes. It is uncommon in healthy persons and also is uncommon in Australia. We report a case of a 45-year-old, otherwise-healthy man with an indolent lung infection that was caused by Absidia corymbifera, who was cured by a combination of surgical and medical therapy.

Clinical spectrum of pulmonary mucormycosis

Pulmonary mucormycosis is an uncommon, but important, opportunistic fungal pneumonia which is often diagnosed post-mortem. This review emphasizes clinical and pathologic characteristics of pulmonary mucormycosis that differentiate this infection from other fungal pneumonias. The most common clinical presentation of pulmonary mucormycosis is a rapidly progressive pneumonia with diffuse infiltrates on chest radiographic examination of a patient with an underlying hematologic malignancy treated with immunosuppressive drugs. Other immunocompromised hosts at risk for pulmonary mucormycosis include patients with diabetes mellitus who may develop a distinctive endobronchial form of this disease. Early consideration of this diagnosis, along with aggressive diagnostic evaluation, are critical to effective therapy and patient survival. While treatment with amphotericin B is the mainstay of therapy for pulmonary mucormycosis, diabetics with endobronchial disease may benefit from early, aggressive surgical resection of the involved lung tissue.

Survival from sino-orbital mucormycosis due to Rhizopus rhizopodiformis

We report the first case of sino-orbital mucormycosis caused by Rhizopus rhizopodiformis. Therapy consisted of conservative surgical drainage and intravenous amphotericin B. The patient, an insulin-dependent diabetic, survived her infection with minimal residual deformity. This case and a literature review suggest that infection due to R. rhizopodiformis in diabetics might be more amenable to treatment than mucormycosis caused by other species of fungi. Speciation of such fungi would permit the determination of species specific mortality rates, and may be of therapeutic and prognostic value.