Efficacy of Low Dose Chemoprophylaxis for Coccidioidomycosis Infection in Liver Transplant Recipients

BACKGROUND: Coccidioidomycosis (CM) infections among transplant recipients result in significant morbidity and mortality. The goal of our study was to establish the efficacy of low dose (LD) versus standard dose (LD, 50 mg daily) fluconazole in preventing CM infection. METHODS: This was a retrospective study utilizing electronic medical records of liver transplant recipients at the University of Arizona. The primary end point was post-transplant CM status, such as infection, complications and survival. RESULTS: We detected a statistically significant correlation between positive pre-transplant status and positive post-transplant status (hazards ratio: 8.25 (95% confidence interval: 1.028 - 66.192)). There was a trend towards improved survival in patients who had a positive post-transplant CM status in the SD group versus LD group (90.9% versus 81.3%), although not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The risk of CM infection among transplant recipients in the absence of prophylaxis is associated with high morbidity and mortality. We currently use SD fluconazole as universal prophylaxis in all transplant recipients despite not establishing statistical significance between LD and SD. We believe that the survival trend detected may have not reached statistical significance due to low power impact. Since the standardization of SD prophylaxis at our institution, we have not diagnosed further new post-transplant CM infections.