Antifungal treatment with echinocandins: a 10-year clinical experience.

OBJECTIVE: The number of studies evaluating the use of echinocandins, whether or not its indication meets international guidelines, in clinical practice is limited. The objective of the present study was to determine the use of echinocandins in a tertiary Spanish hospital in 10 years of clinical practice, and to evaluate its impact on prognosis. METHODS: This retrospective study involved adult nonneutropenic ill patients with suspicion of fungal invasion who started treatment with echinocandins between 2006 and 2015. RESULTS: The number of patients treated with echinocandins was 153, and candidemia was detected thereafter in 25.5%. Factors associated with in-hospital mortality in patients receiving echinocandins were: sex male, septic shock, Charlson comorbidity index, and total stay at the hospital. In-hospital mortality after 7, 30 and 90 days was 13.7%, 24.8%, and 56.8%, respectively. From patients receiving echinocandins, 98 did no show multifocal colonization, 50 had Candida score <2.5, and 49 did not meet Ostrosky-Zeichner prediction rule. A total of 19 patients did not show any of these 3 potential risk factors for candidemia. CONCLUSIONS: The use of echinocandins in 10 years of clinical practice in our tertiary hospital has been performed according to international guidelines; however, candidemia was only diagnosed thereafter in only 25.5% of cases. Furthermore, according to our results, the adequate use of echinocandins seems not to be associated with reduced mortality rates. Further studies, involving a large cohort of patients and more hospitals, are required to corroborate these results.

Sangre y Cirugía. EStrategia de Ahorro en cirugía cardiaca / Blood and Surgery. Strategic saving in cardiac surgery

El incremento de intervenciones quirúrgicas y su mayor complejidad y agresividad, especialmente en cirugía cardiovascular y trasplantes, junto con el envejecimiento de la población ha supuesto un considerable aumento de la demanda de transfusión sanguínea y derivados hemáticos. Los riesgos médicos inherentes al uso de sangre homóloga, el rechazo por motivaciones personales, éticas o creencias religiosas y una insuficiente disponibilidad de hemoderivados consecuencia de la escasezde donaciones, ha condicionado la necesidad del desarrollo de procesos de ahorro de sangre en cirugía y la búsqueda de técnicas alternativas a la transfusión. Problemática que alcanza su máxima expresión en cirugía cardiaca bajo circulación extracorpórea, como consecuencia del alto consumo de sangre de los enfermos cardiológicos intervenidos. Con la experiencia que aporta un promedio de quinientas cirugías anuales de corazón se realiza una revisión sobre las diferentes medidas y procedimientos asociados al ahorro de sangre en cirugía, especialmente en cirugía cardiovascular (AU)

The increase in the number of operations and their greater complexity and aggressiveness, especially in cardiovascular surgery and transplants, together with the aging of the population, has entailed an increase in the demand for transfusion and haematological derivates. The inherent medical risks of homolog blood usage, rejection for personal motivations, ethical and religious beliefs and insufficient availability of haematological derivates as a consequence of the shortage of donations, have conditioned the necessity for the development of processes for saving blood during surgery and the search for alternative techniques to transfusion. This is a problem which has its highest repercussions in cardiac surgery with cardio-pulmonary by-pass because of the high consumption of blood of patients undergoing cardiac surgery. With the experience of approximately 500 operations per year a review of the different measures and procedures associated with saving blood in surgery has been carried out, especially with regard to cardiovascular surgery (AU)