[Clinical, epidemiological and taxonomic aspects of systemic candidiasis in an intensive care unit]

The clinical and epidemiological profile and survival of patients admitted into our intensive care unit (ICU) was analyzed. A retrospective-prospective case series from 2002 to 2004 and 2005 to 2006, respectively, of patients diagnosed with systemic candidiasis in an ICU in a tertiary hospital was studied. Twenty-six cases with systemic candidiasis were included (75% of the cases were male). These subjects underwent multiple vascular or drainage interventions and had a prolonged length of stay in ICU. The first motive to enter ICU was sepsis. Candida albicans (CA) was isolated in 53.8% of cases versus 46.2% for other Candidae (CNA). Over the last years, we have observed a progressively higher incidence for CNA (p = 0.02). We registered an especially high mortality rate (42%), that is higher in the CA group. <> defined the mortality in the progressive risk groups (p = 0.026).