10-year experience in patients operated for acute invasive fungal rhinosinusitis. / Experiencia de 10 años en pacientes operados por rinosinusitis fúngica invasiva aguda.

INTRODUCTION: Acute invasive fungal rhinosinusitis (AIFRS) is rare but has high mortality. It is more frequent in immunocompromised patients with multiple comorbidities, which make their management more difficult. The aim of this study is to describe a cohort of patients operated due to AIFRS, their clinical characteristics, mortality, aetiological agent and efficacy of diagnostic tests. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Non-concurrent prospective study of patients with AIFRS who were operated between 2005 and 2015 in our centre. RESULTS: Thirty-two patients were included, 62.5% (20/32) men, with an average age of 39.4 years (16-65 years). Overall mortality was 71.9%; acute mortality 46.9% and late mortality 25%. Haematological malignancies were the most common underlying disease, present in 84.4% (27/32) of cases, followed by diabetes mellitus in 9.4% (3/32). On diagnosis, 62.5% (20/32) of patients were neutropenic, 80% (16/20) of them with febrile neutropenia. Fever was the most frequent symptom, present in 65.6% (21/32) of patients, followed by facial pain or headache in 53.1% (17/32). Aspergillus was identified in 37.5% (12/32) of cases and Rhizopus in 31.3% (10/32). There was no association between the analysed variables and increased risk of mortality. CONCLUSIONS: AIFRS is an aggressive disease with a high mortality rate, therefore a timely diagnosis is fundamental. It is necessary to optimise suspicion criteria for an early diagnosis in order to improve the prognosis.

Feo-hifomicose subcutânea no estado do Pará: relato de três casos / Subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis in the state of Pará: report of 3 cases

Sao descritos três casos de feo-hifomicose subcutânea, os primeiros encontrados no Estado do Pará, todos oriundos de localidades situadas a leste de Belém, nas microrregioes do Salgado e Bragantina. O diagnóstico teve por base o reconhecimento dos parasitos em cortes histológicos, sem identificaçao de espécie, uma vez que todo o material disponível para exame - compreendendo as lesoes completamente excisadas -, ao ser recebido, já estava fixado em formol e imprestável, portanto, para qualquer tentativa de estudo micológico. A abundância de elementos fúngicos verificada nos tecidos, após impregnaçao pela prata (métodos de Grocott e de Fontana-Masson), contrastava com a dificuldade para visualizá-los em cortes nao-corados ou corados por hematoxilina-eosina, fato devido certamente ao aspecto das hifas neles existentes: delgadas, de paredes finas e cor quase imperceptível.

[Subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis in the state of Pará: a report of 3 cases]. / Feo-hifomicose subcutânea no Estado do Pará: relato detrês casos.

Three cases of subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis from the state of Pará, Brazil are reported. This is the first time that this form of phaeohyphomycosis is described in northern Brazil. The etiologic agents could not isolated, and the diagnosis in all cases was established only on histopathological basis, particularly through the demonstration of fungal elements in tissue sections. Hyphal fragments and vesicular cells were very numerous and conspicuous in special (Grocott and Fontana-Masson methods) stained sections, in contrast to their apparent scarcity in routine hematoxilin-eosin preparations. The difference was certainly due to the aspect in the latter of the invasive tissue forms: the thin-walled and light brown pigmented organisms stained poorly and were very difficult to distinguish from the tissue components.

Factors that enhance the likelihood of successful stereotactic treatment of brain abscesses.

Successful clinical outcomes are not achieved in all patients who undergo image-guided stereotactic surgery as the initial procedure in the management of brain abscess. We sought to define those factors related to management failure, so that the initial surgical approach could be selected using preoperative clinical or imaging criteria. We reviewed our twelve-year experience in 29 consecutive patients. Twenty-two (76%) patients had drainage of abscesses with purulent centers. Seven (24%) underwent lesion biopsy for diagnosis. Twelve patients (with abscesses > 3 cm in average diameter) underwent stereotactic insertion of drainage catheters. Ten patients (34%) had adverse risk factors including immunologic suppression after prior organ transplantation, chronic steroid therapy, prior antineoplastic chemotherapy, or retained foreign body. Microbiological identification of the causative organism was obtained in 22 patients; 6 patients had positive Gram stains without growth in culture (bacteriological diagnosis = 97%). Long-term clinical evaluation (up to 8.5 years, median 3 years) confirmed disease resolution after initial single-procedure stereotactic management in 21 patients (72%). Eventual abscess resolution occurred in an additional 6 patients (21%), all of whom required multiple procedures. Five patients died of complications of their systemic disease during the follow-up period. Fifteen of the 18 (83%) surviving patients who had no associated risk factors returned to their premorbid functional capacity. Factors associated with initial treatment failure included inadequate aspiration, lack of catheter drainage of larger abscesses, chronic immunosuppression, and insufficient antibiotic therapy.