Mucormycosis mimicking Tracheal Tumor: a case report

Abstract

A 49-year-old woman with a history of diabetes mellitus (DM), and hypothyroidism referred to the emergency ward complaining of shortness of breath which had lasted for three weeks. Due to inspiratory and expiratory stridor in the clinical examination, a tracheal lesion was proposed for her. In computed tomography (CT) scan (without contrast) of the neck and chest, a lesion resembling a malignant tracheal tumor was observed spreading around the cervical trachea. Subsequently, the patient's respiratory distress worsened and she underwent tracheostomy under general anesthesia. During tracheostomy, a white to creamy lesion that resembled necrosis with extensive granulation was seen in cervical trachea, and a biopsy was taken. Histopathological reports showed evidence of acute and chronic inflammation, in necrotic background, along with aseptate fungi which confirmed mucormycosis. Initially, intravenous liposomal amphotericin-B was selected as an antifungal drug which was discontinued due to drug-induced acute renal failure. Posaconazole suspension was replaced as an antifungal drug. After about six weeks, the patient was discharged from the hospital in good general condition. Contrary to few previous studies on mucormycosis of the trachea and lower airways, tracheal disease was limited in our patient; therefore, we avoided debridement of the conflict site and tried to control the disease by controlling the underlying disease (DM), and antifungal therapy. Finally, the desired result was achieved. It should be noted that all patients who have been reviewed in the previous published studies have had a wider conflict sites compared to our patient. Therefore, due to the lack of standard treatment for this disease, our therapeutic approach in this study can be considered as an option in limited and localized cases.

Keywords

• fungal infection
• mucormycosis
• posaconazole
• trachea
• tracheostomy