Candida arteritis: are GI endoscopic procedures a source of vascular infections?

A 53-year-old woman, 11 years after a renal transplant on chronic immunosuppression, presented with a sudden onset of a painless left groin mass. Ultrasound revealed a 3 cm common femoral artery pseudoaneurysm and a 3 cm saccular aneurysm of the infrarenal aorta. Operative repair was excision and patch angioplasty of the aortic aneurysm with internal iliac artery and interposition grafting of the femoral artery aneurysm with saphenous vein. Postoperatively, Candida albicans was identified in the aortic and common femoral arterial cultures. Candida infections often occur in patients with impaired cellular immunity due to seeding from urinary tract infections, vascular catheters, or manipulation of the gastrointestinal tract. Our patient, without any prior history of a fungal infection, had undergone a colonoscopy 3 weeks earlier. Without any other possible source being identified, the proposed mechanism for fungal entry into the vascular system was via the gastrointestinal tract, with seeding from the portal venous system. The exact medical and surgical management of these patients remains undefined, and a transplant vascular registry is really needed. However, immunocompromised solid organ transplant recipients undergoing gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures may be at a greater risk for the development of subsequent septicemia. Further reports are really needed to confirm the possible need in these patients for both periprocedural antibiotic and antifungal prophylactic coverage.