ABSTRACT
Transplant Patients Salwa S. Sheikh,1,* Abdul Razack A. Amir2 and Samir S. Amr3
Since the fi rst successful human kidney transplant performed in 1954, solid organ transplantation (SOT) has increased worldwide. With time, as immunosuppressive therapy and graft survival improved, the risk of infectious complications and malignancies also increased. In particular invasive fungal infection (IFI) is a major complication and an important cause of morbidity and mortality among SOT patients. The most common causes of IFIs in SOT are Candidiasis followed by Aspergillosis, and Cryptococcosis except in lung transplant recipients where Aspergillus is the most common cause of IFI. Fungal infections in renal transplant recipients had been reported since the early days of the introduction of kidney transplantation as a mode of therapy for renal failure. The estimated risk of developing IFI in renal transplant recipients varies from 1.4-9.4%, commonly between 3-5%, depending on different reports from various transplant centers (Peterson et al. 1982; Nampoory et al. 1996; Patel and Paya 1997; Stitt 2003; Badiee et al. 2005; Einollahi et al. 2008; Low and Rotstein 2011). The risk of opportunistic infections in kidney transplant patients is determined by the interaction between epidemiologic exposures to offending organisms, whether it is within the hospital or in the community, or recipient’s net-state of immunosuppression. These patients may acquire fungal infection via one of the two main routes.
