Korean J Med Mycol.
2009 Dec;14(4):177-181.
Study of Empirical Antifungal Therapy in Febrile Neutropenia and Invasive Fungal Infection after Introduction of Novel Antifungal Agents
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, SoonChunHyang University, Seoul, Korea. geuncom@hosp.sch.ac.kr
Abstract
- BACKGROUND
Patients with prolonged empirical broad spectrum antibiotics for febrile neutropenia (FN) with cancer, inevitably have increased risk of invasive fungal infections owing to the altered endogenous microbial environment.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of empirical antifungal therapy on occurrence of invasive fungal infections (IFIs) during FN with cancer.
METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed medical records of patients with FN after cytotoxic chemotherapy due to cancer from July, 2003 to June, 2007.
RESULTS
We identified 91 patients with FN after cytotoxic chemotherapy. Most common underlying conditions were lymphoma (20/91, 22%) and leukemia (20/91, 22%). IFIs occurred in 10% (9/91). In a comparison of patients with empirical antifungal therapy with no antifungal therapy, the duration of neutropenia was significantly increased with IFIs (p=0.09). The mortality of IFIs was 55.5% (5/9).
CONCLUSION
We found that the duration of FN than empirical antifungal therapy affected occurrence of IFIs.
