Necrotizing Mucormycosis of Wounds Following Combat Injuries, Natural Disasters, Burns, and Other Trauma

Thomas J Walsh; Duane R Hospenthal; Vidmantas Petraitis; Dimitrios P Kontoyiannis

doi:10.3390/jof5030057

Necrotizing Mucormycosis of Wounds Following Combat Injuries, Natural Disasters, Burns, and Other Trauma

J Fungi (Basel). 2019 Jul 4;5(3):57. doi: 10.3390/jof5030057.

Authors

Thomas J Walsh¹, Duane R Hospenthal², Vidmantas Petraitis³, Dimitrios P Kontoyiannis⁴

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Microbiology & Immunology; Weill Cornell Medicine of Cornell University and New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY 10065, USA. thw2003@med.cornell.edu.
² Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA.
³ Departments of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
⁴ Division of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.

Abstract

Necrotizing mucormycosis is a devastating complication of wounds incurred in the setting of military (combat) injuries, natural disasters, burns, or other civilian trauma. Apophysomyces species, Saksenaea species and Lichtheimia (formerly Absidia) species, although uncommon as causes of sinopulmonary mucormycosis, are relatively frequent agents of trauma-related mucormycosis. The pathogenesis of these infections likely involves a complex interaction among organism, impaired innate host defenses, and biofilms related to traumatically implanted foreign materials. Effective management depends upon timely diagnosis, thorough surgical debridement, and early initiation of antifungal therapy.

Keywords: antifungal therapy; mucormycosis.

Publication types

Review