Mucormycosis: association with deferoxamine therapy.

M ucormycosis is an uncommon acute and often fatal opportunistic fungal infection that usually occurs in patients with poorly controlled diabetes mellitus, acute leukemias, or other immunosuppressive conditions [1,2]. A new association, that of mucormycosis occurring in patients receiving deferoxamine therapy for iron or aluminum excess, has been reported with increasing frequency since 1986 [3-16]. Although this association has been strongly linked with chronic renal failure requiring hemodialysis, it is now clear that other conditions in which deferoxamine may be required (thalassemia, sideroblastic anemia, myelodysplasia) are also associated with mucormycosis [5,7,8,16]. We report a case of mucormycosis in a patient who had received deferoxamine for iron overload secondary to myelodysplastic syndrome, and review previous cases of deferoxamine-associated mucormycosis.