Clinical Features of Human Infection with Scedosporium inflatum

We report on 17 Australian cases of human infection or colonization with Scedosporium inflatum. The spectrum of clinical manifestations was similar to that in infection caused by Scedosporium apiospermum. The patients were classified into three groups. Four immunocompetent patients who presented with localized infections of a joint, nail bed, eye, or sphenoidal sinus made up the first group. Our first case, in a boy with posttraumatic septic arthritis, responded to surgical drainage with amphotericin B followed by treatment with itraconazole. The other three cases were cured by surgery alone. The second group consisted of five immunocompromised patients who presented with disseminated infections in a variety of sites. Four of these patients did not respond to antifungal therapy and died. The fifth apparently responded to antifungal drugs after correction of his neutropenia. The third group included eight patients with asymptomatic colonization in the external ear (five cases) or respiratory secretions (three cases). The nine isolates of S. inflatum tested by both disk and agar dilution methods were resistant to antifungal drugs. In our first case, which responded clinically to itraconazole, the MIC of this drug for the fungal isolate was 25 micrograms/mL. Thus S. inflatum can cause a broad spectrum of human infections whose severity and prognosis depend largely on the host's immune status.