Case Report
A Proven Case of Cutaneous Rhizopus Infection
Presenting with Severe Limb Pain Very Soon after Induction
Treatment in a Patient with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Mehmet Sezgin Pepeler,
1
Kadir Acar,
1
Özlem Güzel Tunçcan,
2
Ömer UluoLlu,
3
AyGe KalkancJ,
4
Hakan Atalar,
5
Koray KJlJç,
6
and Gülsan Türköz Sucak
1
1
Department of Hematology, Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
2
Department of Infectious Disease, Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
3
Department of Pathology, Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
4
Department of Microbiology, Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
5
Department of Orthopedics, Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
6
Department of Radiology, Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
Correspondence should be addressed to Mehmet Sezgin Pepeler; drsezgin44@gmail.com
Received 25 October 2014; Revised 11 January 2015; Accepted 12 January 2015
Academic Editor: Kazunori Nakase
Copyright © 2015 Mehmet Sezgin Pepeler et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Objective and Importance. Invasive mucormycosis may complicate the course of patients with hematologic malignancies and has a
very high mortality rate. Early diagnosis and aggressive approach combined with surgical and medical treatment have paramount
importance for cure. Clinical Presentation. We report here a case of a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia presenting with a
subcutaneous mass lesion which was sampled by an ultrasound guided needle biopsy. Te pathology showed microorganisms with
aseptate hyphae with wide, irregular walls and more or less branching with highly vertical angles which suggested a mold infection.
Te specimen was also cultured where Rhizopus spp. grew. Conclusion. Posaconazole 200 mg QID was commenced. She recovered
from neutropenia and pain on day 20 of treatment. Afer 4 courses of hyper-CVAD chemotherapy, the remaining sof tissue mass
was removed surgically and she underwent allogeneic HSCT from a full matched sibling donor under secondary prophylaxis.
1. Introduction
Invasive fungal infections are major causes of morbidity and
mortality in immunosuppressed patients. Invasive mucormy-
cosis (IMM) is the third most frequent invasive fungal
infection afer aspergillosis and candidiasis in patients with
acute leukemia [1]. Te incidence has risen signifcantly in
the past decades with the rapidly growing number of highly
immunosuppressive treatment modalities such as stem cell
and solid organ transplantation and the use of broad spec-
trum antimicrobial and antifungal agents. Te established
risk factors are immunosuppression, diabetes mellitus, iron
overload, deferoxamine treatment, and graf versus host
disease [1]. Here, we present a patient with none of the above
risk factors; a young agricultural worker is on the eighth day
of leukemia induction chemotherapy. She was neutropenic,
though not for a long time, and was not on broad spectrum
antibiotics and she was not diabetic. We believe that her
occupation was the underlying cause and the port of entry
for the pathogen was a possibly an unnoticed point of skin
dehiscence which occurred before the diagnosis of leukemia.
2. Case Report
A 27-year-old female, who worked as an agricultural laborer,
was referred to our hospital with complaints of fatigue,
malaise, anorexia, and epistaxis. Her physical examination
revealed pallor and eczematous plaques in her chest and the
proximal part of her right arm. She also had splenomegaly
of 6 cm below the costal margin. Laboratory investigation
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Case Reports in Hematology
Volume 2015, Article ID 285360, 4 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/285360