[Beware of yeast septicemia in intensive care medicine]. / Alerte aux septicémies à levures en réanimation polyvalente.

A retrospective study of 24 cases of systemic candidosis observed in a polyvalent intensive care unit over a 6.5 yr period (1987-1993) led to some constatations: an increasingly high incidence of this type of septicaemia (up to 27.5% of all septicaemias), large responsibility of skin saprophytes Candida ( > 62% vs 21% from intestinal Candida albicans), frequent diagnostic difficulties, and a fatal outcome in 7/24 patients (mainly from severe causal illness). In order to improve the prognosis, a more systematic and often empirical resort to fungicidal agents could be justified whenever patients with very severe surgical or medical conditions develop a protracted fever of unclear origin.