Isolated renal mucormycosis: case report and review

The 15th reported case of isolated renal mucormycosis (infection of the kidney with fungus of the order Mucorales, in the absence of infection elsewhere in the body) is presented. The patient was a 36-year-old human immunodeficiency virus-infected man, actively using iv drugs, who suffered 6 wk of flank pain and fever before diagnosis was made by percutaneous renal biopsy. He received 4 months of amphotericin B treatment, then no therapy for 6 months before dying with no evidence of mucormycosis. Isolated renal mucormycosis should be suspected in those with an underlying immunocompromising illness or history of iv drug use who have persistent flank pain and fever, but sterile urine cultures. Computed tomographic scanning with contrast should then be performed; findings of severe inflammation or bacterial infection, despite an indolent clinical course with sterile or nondiagnostic urine and blood cultures, are suggestive of isolated renal mucormycosis, and renal biopsy under computed tomographic guidance should be performed, despite the potential risk of disseminated infection. Although our patient was treated with amphotericin B alone, nephrectomy with or without amphotericin B therapy appears to be more likely to cure infection and relieve pain and constitutional symptoms.