Invasive Candida Infections (ICI) in Pediatric Population of a Tertiary Care Hospital in United Arab Emirates (UAE): Management and Time to Negative Culture

Abstract

Background: Invasive candida infection is a growing problem in critically ill patients. Candida species are the most common agent responsible for invasive fungal infections in children. Timely diagnosis and proper selection of antifungal therapy are of paramount importance for a favorable outcome. The increasing rate of non-albiacans candida is becoming a real challenge when choosing an empirical antifungal therapy since a large percentage of them are resistant to azoles. This study aims at identifying the most commonly used antifungal agents in our institute and their success measured by the time needed to reach a negative culture (TNC) in cases of candidemia and candiduriaMethods:We performed a retrospective cohort study of all children (15 years and younger) with invasive candida infection, admitted to Tawam Hospital from 2008 to 2015.Results: Fluconazole seems to be the most common choice of our pediatricians in treating urine ICI (65%)while Amphotericin B Lipid complex is the most common choice in treating blood ICI(56%). Amphoteric B Lipid Complex was associated with the shortest TNC both in treating urine ICI (3 days) and blood ICI (4.4 days0Conclusions: Unfortunately, there aren’t many prospective studies in the literature comparing the efficacy of the major antifungal agents in treating pediatrics ICI. Therefore, we hope that this study, despite being retrospective, will shed some light on the utilization of Amphotericin B Lipid Complex in treating pediatrics ICI.