Clinical spectrum of pulmonary mucormycosis

Pulmonary mucormycosis is an uncommon, but important, opportunistic fungal pneumonia which is often diagnosed post-mortem. This review emphasizes clinical and pathologic characteristics of pulmonary mucormycosis that differentiate this infection from other fungal pneumonias. The most common clinical presentation of pulmonary mucormycosis is a rapidly progressive pneumonia with diffuse infiltrates on chest radiographic examination of a patient with an underlying hematologic malignancy treated with immunosuppressive drugs. Other immunocompromised hosts at risk for pulmonary mucormycosis include patients with diabetes mellitus who may develop a distinctive endobronchial form of this disease. Early consideration of this diagnosis, along with aggressive diagnostic evaluation, are critical to effective therapy and patient survival. While treatment with amphotericin B is the mainstay of therapy for pulmonary mucormycosis, diabetics with endobronchial disease may benefit from early, aggressive surgical resection of the involved lung tissue.