Fungal Septicemia in Patients Receiving Parenteral Hyperalimentation

Thirty-three patients with fungal septicemia at the University of Minnesota Hospital were seen during an 18-month period, January, 1968, through August, 1969. Twenty-two of these 33 patients (67 per cent) had received parenteral hyperalimentation for severe gastrointestinal dysfunction. Fungal septicemia was not related to steroid therapy or immunologic deficiency i te patiets receiing hyperalimentation. However, a correlation with prolonged intravenous catheterization was found. More recently, during a prospective study of all patients receiving parenteral hyperalimentation, septicemia complicated the course of therapy in 13 of 49. In eight of these patients, Candida albicans was the causative microbial species.