[Candida infections and their evolution in patients receiving parenteral feeding]

Parenteral nutrition has completely modified the prognosis in a variety of illnesses of digestive tract. The method is not devoid of complications, and septicemias, particularly those originated by fungii of the Candida species, have been informed to occur with an alarming frequency of up to 23%. The patient on parenteral nutrition is an ideal prey for this kind of infection, but if the technic and the metabolic control are brought down considerably. In 30 patients of the Department of Gastroenterology at the Hospital General, Centro Médico Nacional, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, we have studied the frequency and evolution of Candida infections, detected before or during the treatment with parenteral nutrition to know the influence of the method on this type of host-parasite relationship. In the initial cultures 60% of the patients develop Candida in one or several regions; percentage increased to 63.3% at the end of 15 days and decreased spontaneously to 33% at the end of the treatment on the 30 patients we did not observe a septicemia due to Candida. We conclude that parenteral nutrition, while correcting the nutritional state of the patient, with a good technic, favors the spontaneous withdrawal of the fungii, without the necessary specific treatment.