10-year experience in patients operated for acute invasive fungal rhinosinusitis

Acute invasive fungal rhinosinusitis (AIFRS) is rare but has high mortality. It is more frequent in immunocompromised patients with multiple comorbidities, which make their management more difficult. The aim of this study is to describe a cohort of patients operated due to AIFRS, their clinical characteristics, mortality, aetiological agent and efficacy of diagnostic tests.

Non-concurrent prospective study of patients with AIFRS who were operated between 2005 and 2015 in our centre.

Thirty-two patients were included, 62.5% (20/32) men, with an average age of 39.4 years (16-65 years). Overall mortality was 71.9%; acute mortality 46.9% and late mortality 25%. Haematological malignancies were the most common underlying disease, present in 84.4% (27/32) of cases, followed by diabetes mellitus in 9.4% (3/32). On diagnosis, 62.5% (20/32) of patients were neutropenic, 80% (16/20) of them with febrile neutropenia. Fever was the most frequent symptom, present in 65.6% (21/32) of patients, followed by facial pain or headache in 53.1% (17/32). Aspergillus was identified in 37.5% (12/32) of cases and Rhizopus in 31.3% (10/32). There was no association between the analysed variables and increased risk of mortality.

AIFRS is an aggressive disease with a high mortality rate, therefore a timely diagnosis is fundamental. It is necessary to optimise suspicion criteria for an early diagnosis in order to improve the prognosis.