Overview of Mucormycosis Cases in Türkiye: A Cumulative Case Analysis
Background: Mucormycosis is a life-threatening angioinvasive fungal infection that primarily affects immunocompromised individuals, especially those with diabetes mellitus or hematologic malignancies. Despite its clinical importance, a comprehensive synthesis of mucormycosis cases from Türkiye is lacking. This study aimed to review and synthesize the published case reports on mucormycosis in Türkiye systematically. Materials and Methods: Mucormycosis case reports from Türkiye published between 1 January 1966 and 30 November 2024 were reviewed and analyzed, with an emphasis on demographics, clinical characteristics, treatment strategies, and outcomes. Results: A total of 199 cases from 155 publications were included. Mean age was 47.7 years, and 51.8% of patients were male. Diabetes mellitus was the most frequent underlying condition (65.8%), followed by hematologic malignancies (16.6%). Rhino-cerebral involvement was the predominant clinical form (86.4%). Histopathological confirmation was reported in 91.0% of cases, whereas microbiological confirmation was available in 47.7%. Overall mortality was 43.7%. Surgical debridement was performed in 69.3% of cases, and crude mortality was lower among patients who underwent surgery than among those who did not. Liposomal amphotericin B was the most frequently reported antifungal agent. Conclusions: This study provides a national descriptive synthesis of published mucormycosis cases from Türkiye over nearly six decades. The findings highlight the predominance of diabetes-associated rhino-cerebral disease, frequent reliance on histopathology, and the importance of combined medical–surgical management in routine practice. Because the dataset is based on heterogeneous published case reports and case series spanning a long time period, treatment-outcome findings should be interpreted descriptively.
Authors
- Seyfi Durmaz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9756-7764)
- Melike Yaşar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8913-2314)
- Dilek Yeşim Metin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7282-5031)
- Süleyha Hilmioglu-Polat
- Egemen Bolat
Institutions
- Ege University (TR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Fungi
- Published
- 2026-06-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/jof12060443
- Primary Topic
- Antifungal resistance and susceptibility
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00