Mucormycosis of the Central Nervous System

For many years Mucor and Rhizopus, class of Phycomycetes, have been considered purely saprophytic, but recently a number of cases of human infection by these organisms have been encountered. Fourteen cases^1-11 with involvement of the brain have been reported, and nine^2,3,7,9-11 of these had concomitant disease of the eyes. In each of these 14 cases the fungus infection complicated some other disorder, and all of the patients died of their fungal disease. In one other case the eye alone was involved and treatment by enucleation was successful.¹²

Paultauf¹ reported the first case with central nervous system involvement in 1885, but no other cases appear until 1943, when Gregory, Golden, and Haymaker² reported three new cases, all in middle-aged diabetics who were in diabetic coma when first seen. Subsequently LeCompte and Meissner,³ Wolf and Cowen,⁴ and Stratemeier⁵ reported single cases, each in moribund