Life Threatening Zygomyces Infection Of The Gastrointestinal Tract

A 25 year old diabetic woman was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit because of ketoacidosis, hypotension and upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Emergency endoscopic biopsy of the upper gastrointestinal tract demonstrated invasive, non-septate fungal hyphae suggestive of either a Zygomyces or Basidiobolus. Amphotericin B was not used because of its ineffectiveness against Basidiobolus and her renal failure. In addition, first generation antifungal azoles were not used because of their ineffectiveness against Zygomyces. The patient responded to medical therapy and the broad-spectrum azole antifungal posaconazole which has activity against both Basidiobolus and Zygomyces. The patient recovered from her critical illness and on follow up was without residual problems.