ABSTRACT
The increasing incidence of both systemic and superficial fungal infections in immunocompromised patients, together the advent of newer, more effective drugs for preexisting disease, suggests that use of antifungal drugs will increase over the coming years. It is appropriate, therefore, to review both the risks and benefits that may accrue from their use. Clearly the risk/benefit ratio of any drug is not fixed and will alter according to the severity of the disease; it is permissible to run a greater degree of risk in the treatment of life-threatening systemic infection than it is when treating relatively trivial but possibly chronic superficial disease. This chapter concentrates on the risk/benefit ratio related to the treatment of superficial fungal infection.
