Fatal fungaemia due to Sporothrix schenckii

Abstract

A clinical case is reported of a 78-year-old male with antecedents of diabetes and alcoholism who was hospitalized because he showed cutaneous lesions on the face and extremities suggesting cutaneous tuberculosis, but after a first histological study cutaneous leishmaniasis was erroneously diagnosed. Because of some unusual characteristics of the patient, the skin biopsies were carefully re-examined, as well as blood smears, which revealed elongated yeast form-like cells suggestive of Sporothrix schenckii. The diagnosis was confirmed when the fungus grew in mice and in Sabouraud cultures inoculated with blood samples from the patient. It is recommended that Sp. schenckii is included in the differential diagnosis of ulcerative cutaneous lesions in patients from Mexican humid areas.