Prothotheca wickerhamii: a case series

An 81-year-old female presented with a three year history of painless, erythematous nodules on her right proximal forearm slow spread to the cubital fossa and distal upper arm. A 78-year-old six month isolated plaque. The patient had background medical inflammatory arthritis managed oral prednisone infliximab. In both cases calcofluor-white stain revealed organisms resembling Prototheca. Growth occurred after 72 hours Sabouraud’s agar incubated aerobically at 30°C. identification Prototheca wickerhamii was confirmed using Vitek 2 YST ID card or MS (database 3.2). are ubiquitous environmental, achlorophyllic algae, which rarely cause infection in humans. Cutaneous is most commonly encountered slowly progressive indolent course; however, invasive disease significant morbidity mortality has been reported. Most occur immunocompromised host. Treatment always required however no consensus therapeutic guidelines exist. We present two cutaneous order highlight some key clinical microbiological diagnostic features this unusual infection.