Case Report

Tree Cases of Rhino-Orbito-Cerebral Mucormycosis

Young-Il Moon, Chong-Nahm Kim, Soon-Kwan Hong, Ji-Ae Lee, Ok-Kyung Chung, Moon-Jung Kim
Author Information & Copyright
Department of Otolaryngology, College of Medicine, Ewha Woman's University, Korea.

Copyright ⓒ 1997. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Jul 24, 2015

Abstract

Rhinocerebral mucormycosis is a well-described fulminant fungal infection that typically presents in a rapidly fulminant manner. This condition is more likely to occur among patient with diabetes mellitus, malignant tumors, who have long-term steroid treatment, or who suffer from some debilitating diseases.

We report 3 cases of rhinoorbitocerebral mucormycosis, all suffered from diabetes mellitus. In all 3 cases, endoscopic sinus surgery was done and the antifungal agent(amphotericin B) was administered intravenously, and two patients died. One survivor who had focal extension of paranasal sinus and orbit, required one surgical intervention without orbital exenteration and he is alive without recurrence disease.

The severity of the disease is probably dependent upon the gost resistance to the invasion of phycomycetes. Early diagnosis and immediate, effective treatment are the key for cure of the disease.

Keywords: Mucormycosis; Endoscopic sinus surgery; Amphotericin B