Part XIII. Systemic antifungal therapy.

Until the last decade of the 20th century, intravenous amphotericin B deoxycholate was the only agent available to treat the relatively rare occurrence of serious systemic fungal infections. In response to an explosion in the incidence of systemic fungal infections, within a 15 year period, four new classes of antifungal agents were introduced: the triazoles, liposomal amphotericin B preparations, an allylamine, and echinocandins (Table 1). So an updated review of antifungal therapy is in order.