[Results of surgical resection for patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis]

Pulmonary cryptococcosis is a fungal infection caused by inhalation of Cryptococcus neoformans. Pulmonary cryptococcal infections tend to occur in immunocompromised individuals, although they can occasionally develop even in immunocompetent hosts. This report presents a retrospective clinical study of 8 patients who underwent a surgical resection for pulmonary cryptococcosis between 1999 and 2008. The age of the patients ranged from 49 to 85 years old (mean 62.6). There were 4 male and 4 female patients. All patients except for 1 had no symptoms. Two patients were immuno-compromised hosts undergoing corticosteroid therapy due to myasthenia gravis and rheumatoid arthritis, respectively. There were 7 patients with a single nodule and 1 patient with multiple nodules. The tumors ranged from 9 to 21 mm in diameter. None of the patients were definitely diagnosed prior to the surgical resection. The surgical procedures included 5 partial resections, 1 segmentectomy and 2 lobectomies. It is often difficult to make a differential diagnosis between lung cancer and pulmonary cyptococosis, because pulmonary cyptococosis shows similar imaging findings in CT. Therefore, a surgical resection is recommended if an observation of the pulmonary nodes is required to make a differential diagnosis of malignant tumors. All of the patients in the current series showed a good outcome without any relapse including cryptococcal meningitis after a surgical resection.