Invasive Trichosporon austroamericanum infection following heart transplantation: a case report and literature review of Trichosporon inkin sensu lato infections after thoracic surgery

Trichosporon spp. are ubiquitous basidiomycetous yeast-like fungi, widely distributed in the environment and commonly found in the skin and gastrointestinal microbiota. Trichosporon asahii is the most frequently implicated species in invasive trichosporonosis, usually followed by Trichosporon inkin. In recent years, the incidence of invasive fungal diseases (IFD) caused by rare yeasts of Trichosporon species has increased, predominantly affecting immunocompromised patients. Since the late 1990s, several cases of IFD due to Trichosporon inkin sensu lato were reported in European hospitals (France, Spain and UK) in patients with history of thoracic surgery. Recently, Trichosporon austroamericanum has been identified as a new species phylogenetically related to T. inkin. Here, we describe a fatal case of disseminated T. austroamericanum infection following heart transplantation, which was initially identified as T. inkin. Given the recent description of T. austroamericanum as a species closely related to T. inkin, we conducted a comprehensive review of all reported T. inkin sensu lato infections occurring after thoracic surgery.