Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) can complicate the clinical course of COVID-19 and are associated with a significant increase in mortality, especially in critically ill patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU). This narrative review concerns 4099 cases of IFIs in 58,784 COVID-19 patients involved in 168 studies. COVID-19-associated invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA) is a diagnostic challenge because its non-specific clinical/imaging features and the fact that the proposed clinically diagnostic algorithms do not really apply to COVID-19 patients. Forty-seven observational studies and 41 case reports have described a total of 478 CAPA cases that were mainly diagnosed on the basis of cultured respiratory specimens and/or biomarkers/molecular biology, usually without histopathological confirmation. Candidemia is a widely described secondary infection in critically ill patients undergoing prolonged hospitalisation, and the case reports and observational studies of 401 cases indicate high crude mortality rates of 56.1% and 74.8%, respectively. COVID-19 patients are often characterised by the presence of known risk factors for candidemia such as in-dwelling vascular catheters, mechanical ventilation, and broad-spectrum antibiotics. We also describe 3185 cases of mucormycosis (including 1549 cases of rhino-orbital mucormycosis (48.6%)), for which the main risk factor is a history of poorly controlled diabetes mellitus (>76%). Its diagnosis involves a histopathological examination of tissue biopsies, and its treatment requires anti-fungal therapy combined with aggressive surgical resection/debridement, but crude mortality rates are again high: 50.8% in case reports and 16% in observational studies. The presence of other secondary IFIs usually diagnosed in severely immunocompromised patients show that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of stunning the host immune system: 20 cases of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, 5 cases of cryptococcosis, 4 cases of histoplasmosis, 1 case of coccidioides infection, 1 case of pulmonary infection due to Fusarium spp., and 1 case of pulmonary infection due to Scedosporium.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Mucormycosis, CAM, aspergillosis, Histoplasmosis, CAPA, Candidemia, Invasive fungal infections, cryptococcosis, PCP, 【초록키워드】 Treatment, SARS-CoV-2, therapy, Mortality, intensive care, mechanical ventilation, Pneumonia, Infection, Diabetes Mellitus, diagnostic, Diagnosis, Antibiotics, surgical, risk factor, observational studies, observational study, immune, Case report, ICU, Immunocompromised patient, Clinical course, Algorithm, mortality rate, hospitalisation, non-specific, COVID-19 patients, Pulmonary infection, COVID-19 patient, Fungal infection, Critically ill patient, Vascular, tissue biopsies, significant increase, Fusarium, Host, IFI, feature, invasive, respiratory specimen, described, involved, clinically, diagnosed, histopathological, complicate, 【제목키워드】 review, narrative,