Fungal brain abscesses (aspergillosis/mucormycosis) in two immunosuppressed patients.

Although the mortality rate for fungal brain abscesses in immunosuppressed patients remains unacceptably high, this figure may be reduced if computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging scans are performed more promptly in susceptible individuals with seemingly mild intracranial complaints. Earlier presumptive amphotericin B treatment and more timely surgical debridement may minimize neurological injury and enhance survival. These assumptions were only tentatively supported by the clinical courses of two patients, one an alert patient with promyelocytic leukemia and an aspergillosis brain abscess who survived, and the other, a comatose intravenous drug abuser with mucormycosis who died.