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Mortality of hospitalized patients with Candida endophthalmitis
A V Menezes1, D A Sigesmund, W A Demajo
1Department of Ophthalmology, Toronto (Ontario), Hospital.
Background:
Candida is becoming an important nosocomial pathogen as the incidence of hospital-acquired candidemia is rising. Candida endophthalmitis is a good indicator of systemic candidiasis in hospitalized patients.
Methods:
Thirteen (17%) of 76 ophthalmologic consultations for Candida endophthalmitis in our institution had positive findings during a 12-month period. We studied these 13 patients with Candida endophthalmitis to evaluate their outcomes.
Results:
All 13 patients were admitted to a large tertiary care hospital, and 10 (77%) were in an intensive care unit. The overall mortality was 77% for all patients and 80% for the intensive care patients. This mortality was higher than the overall mortality for all patients in the surgical intensive care unit in our institution (17%), as well as the mortality for our patients with candidemia in the surgical intensive care unit (61%).
Conclusions:
The strikingly high mortality in our group of patients with Candida endophthalmitis reflects the fact that they are a seriously ill group with multiple risk factors for Candida infection. This information suggests that the presence of Candida endophthalmitis is a good indicator of high mortality in seriously ill patients in intensive care units.