Fatal course of pulmonary Absidia sp. infection in a 4-year-old girl undergoing treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Absidia sp. is a rare etiologic agent responsible for infectious complications in immunosuppressed patients. The authors describe a 4-year-old girl with acute lymphoblastic leukemia complicated with pleuropneumonia caused by an Absidia infection during the induction of remission. A review of the published reports in current literature is included for comparison. To the authors' knowledge only six cases of primary pulmonary absidiomycosis have been published. Despite its uncommon pulmonary presentation, mucormycosis should be considered in patients with an immunosuppressing illness and positive risk factors and when a pulmonary lesion is not responding to appropriate antibiotic therapy.