Epidemiology, clinical features, therapeutic interventions and outcomes of mucormycosis in Shiraz: an 8-year retrospective case study with comparison between children and adults

Mucormycosis is an invasive fungal infection with high morbidity and mortality rate despite the early diagnosis and proper therapeutic interventions. Given the importance of epidemiological data in reviewing the attitude toward infectious diseases in developing countries, the current retrospective case study aimed to compare the epidemiological aspects, risk factors, clinical characteristics, therapeutic interventions, and outcomes of mucormycosis between adults and children during eight years (2013–2021) in the main infectious disease referral centers in the southwest of Iran. The median age of 164 patients included in this study was 47 years (IQR 22–59). The median length of hospitalization was 33 days.The annual incidence of mucormycosis-related hospitalizations was estimated 1.76 per 10,000 admissions during the study period. Moreover, the incidence of infection was 2.4 times higher in males than females in children. Diabetes mellitus was the most frequent predisposing factor in adults (46.0%). The main risk factor in children was hematologic malignancy (52.6%), but a considerable proportion of them (28.9%) were immunocompetent.The most frequent antifungal agent used was liposomal amphotericin B (82.3%) as monotherapy. The combination therapy was used more in adults (15.8%) than children (7.9%). In addition, surgical intervention with antifungal therapy was considered the most effective therapeutic approach. The in-hospital mortality rate was 14.6% for adults, whereas it was zero for children. Our findings provide a recent epidemiologic analysis of mucormycosis among hospitalized patients in both children and adults. Mucormycosis mainly affects individuals with diabetes mellitus or hematological malignancies and presents as rhino-orbito-cerebral form. Proven diagnosis of mucormycosis according to clinical manifestations and histopathology observations accompanied by proper antifungal treatments may improve survival rates.