Conventional vs. liposomal amphotericin B in immunosuppressed children

Invasive fungal infections, mostly caused by Candida and Aspergillus species, are a major cause of early morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised children. The treatment of choice for systemic fungal infections is still the early intravenous administration of amphotericin B. However, conventional AMB therapy is often limited by severe side effects such as fever, chills, bronchospasm, and nephrotoxicity. In recent reports liposomal AMB (AmBisome) was shown to be effective in the treatment of severe systemic fungal infections. So far, clinical experience with AmBisome in children is still anecdotal and no comparative study is yet available. In the following we report on 11 immunosuppressed children who were treated with conventional or liposomal AMB for longer than 3 weeks.