Mucormycosis is a rare opportunistic fungal infection that primarily affects patients with neoplasms of the hematopoietic system.
Also diabetics with ketoacidosis, patients with severe burns, patients after treatment with deferoxamine or immunosuppressed patients such as after organ transplantation or HIV infection represent a risk group. Characteristic of the infection is a rapid tissue and vascular invasion leading to thrombosis of the arteries and as a result leads to infarcts or necroses of the treated areas.
Depending on the place of infection, five different forms are clinically distinguished.
1) rhinoorbitocerebral mucormycosis: most common form, especially in children with diabetes. This leads to swelling, redness and pain in the orbital area; bone infiltration can lead to sinusitis with bloody secretions and necrosis, infestation of the CNS possible
2) pulmonary mucormycosis: especially in patients with haematological cancer; this form develops after inhalation of fungal conidia, leading to pulmonary hemorrhagic infarctions, dyspnoea and hemoptysis
3) Gastrointestinal mucormycosis: especially in poorly nourished children after ingestion of infectious material, symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting, ischemia and gangrene due to the risk of perforation very high lethality
4) mucormycosis of the skin: especially in children, infection after skin lesions, symptoms are black skin necrosis and ulceration
5) Disseminated mucormycosis: infection starts in the lungs, spreading through blood, often infestation of the CNS, almost always lethal. The prognosis of mucormycosis is generally poor, the mortality rate is between 50 and 70% regardless of the age of the patients. Prophylaxis does not exist.