Gastrointestinal Basidiobolomycosis, a Rare and Under-diagnosed Fungal Infection in Immunocompetent Hosts: A Review Article

Gastrointestinal Basidiobolomycosis (GIB) is an unusual, rare, but emerging fungal infection in the stomach, small intestine, colon, and liver. It has been rarely reported in the English literature and most of the reported cases have been from US, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iran. In the last five years, 17 cases have been reported from one or two provinces in Iran, and it seems that it has been undiagnosed or probably unnoticed in other parts of the country. In this review, we explored the English literature from 1964 through 2013 via PubMed, Google, and Google scholar using the following search keywords: 1. Basidiobolomycosis. 2. Basidiobolus ranarum. 3. Gastrointestinal Basidiobolomycosis. In this review, we attempted to collect all clinical, pathological, and radiological findings of the presenting patients; complemented with previous experiences regarding the treatment and prognosis of the GIB. Since 1964, only 71 cases have been reported, which will be fully described in terms of clinical presentations, methods of diagnosis and treatment as well as prognosis and follow up.