[Voriconazole - applications and perspectives]

Voriconazole (Vfend) is a new broadspectrum antifungal agent belonging to the group of triazole drugs. In vitro and in vivo efficacy was demonstrated against a large variety of yeasts with excellent activity against all Candida species but as well against Cryptococcus neoformans. Furthermore, voriconazole has shown excellent activity against many moulds in particular against Aspergillus species, but endemic fungi such as Histoplasma capsulatum are in the spectrum as well. Clinical efficacy was demonstrated in several large phase II/III studies in diseases such as oral and oesophageal candidosis, acute invasive aspergillosis or chronic invasive aspergillosis. New adverse events such as visual disturbancies has been described together with the use of voriconazole, but the majority of adverse events are similar to other triazole drugs and in particular not life-threatening. With the introduction of voriconazole a great progress in the therapy of invasive fungal infections was achieved. In the therapy of invasive aspergillosis, voriconazole is significantly more effective compared to amphotericin B desoxycholate.