[Pulmonary mucormycoses (author's transl)]

Mucormycoses are rare, acute infections, most often fatal, occurring usually in a host with decreased immunity. The agents are ubiquitous fungi belonging to the Mucoraceae family, an ordinary saprophyte becoming pathogenous in patients with a severe disease (malignant hemopathy, diabetes) or treated by immunosuppressive drugs. Pulmonary localizations remained exceptional (128 cases found in the literature). The observations reported draws its originality from: -- the etiological circumstances: an aged patient with no hemopathy or diabetes, without immunosuppressive treatment but undergoing a prolonged antibiotic therapy; -- the clinical signs: discovery on X-ray of excavated infiltrates in a background of a severe infection with a very poor physical condition; -- the diagnosis criteria with the demonstration of the responsible mucor in the sputum, the endobronchial aspiration and transparietal puncture; -- the great efficiency of Amphotericin B at rather small doses. A review of the literature underlines the exceptional character of the cure.