[Micafungin for the treatment of neonatal invasive candidiasis].

BACKGROUND

In neonatal intensive care units, deep fungal disease due to Candida spp. are an important clinical problem, partly due to the increasing prevalence of Candida disease and also to the high associated and constant morbimortality; both factors are independently maintained though there has been a significant improvement in the management of neonatal patients.

AIMS: To define the therapeutic use of micafungin for the treatment of neonatal invasive candidiasis.

METHODS

We use a review of biomedic data bases namely Medline and EMBASE.

CONCLUSIONS

Micafungin is the latest introduced echinocandin. It has a wide spectrum of activity and covers Candida albicans and non-albicans Candida species. It has scarce drugs interactions and is devoid of toxicity, being an attractive approach for the treatment of invasive candidiasis (without meningitis, endocarditis and endophthalmitis). Althought the European Medicines Agency approved in 2008 the use of Micafungin for the treatment of invasive candidiasis in children, the available clinical experience is limited and currently more clinical studies are warranted to define its efficacy and safety in neonates.