Intestinal mucormycosis: a rare entity in pediatric oncology.

Mucormycosis is increasingly emerging as an important cause of invasive fungal infection in immunocompromised patients. Intestinal mucormycosis is extremely rare, difficult to diagnose, and has dismal prognosis. We report two children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and intestinal mucormycosis. Despite surgery and appropriate antifungal therapy, only one survived. Literature review showed only 10 other childhood cancer cases with intestinal mucormycosis. All had abdominal pain preceding gut perforation. All except one had leukemia and majority were in induction phase of therapy. Only 5 of these 12 children survived. Other than appropriate antifungal therapy, early surgery and rising neutrophils aid in recovery.