Rhinocerebral zygomycosis following bone marrow transplantation in chronicmyelogenous leukaemia. Report of a case and review of the literature

We report on a man suffering from chronic myelogenous leukaemia treated by allogeneic bone marrow transplantation who, in the late post-transplantatio n phase, developed a hyperacute fatal invasive rhinocerebral zygomycosis. T he origin of the ascending infection was the sinus sphenoidalis from which fungal hyphae spread to the central nervous system via the skull and the du ra mater. The first symptoms of this severe infection were cerebral convuls ions and a bilateral total amaurosis. The isolation of the pathogen from po st mortem tisue was not successful. The present case is compared with previ ous reports of zygomycoses after bone marrow transplantation.