OBJECTIVETo analyze the incidence, clinical features and the predisposing factors of fungal septicemia, and investigate the risk factors for death due to fungal septicemia and the prognosis of the patients.

METHODSWe retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 91 patients with fungal septicemia diagnosed in the last 17 years, including 60 patients with clinical cure or improvement, and 31 who die of the disease. Based on the results by univariate analysis, the data were analyzed using logistic multiple regression and Fisher's discriminant analysis.

RESULTSFungal septicemia had many predisposing factors with high mortality rate. Univariate analysis revealed significant differences between the cured/improved cases and the fatal cases for 12 variables, including advanced age, complication by bacterial infection, septic shock, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), ICU patients, cortical hormone therapy, surgery, chemotherapy, use of immunopotentiating agents, length of hospital stay before antifungal therapy, time of anti-fungus therapy and types of invasive procedures. Logistic multiple regression analysis showed that the types of invasive procedures, MODS, surgery and prolonged hospital stay before antifungal therapy were the independent risk factors for fungal septicemia-related death. Fisher's linear discriminant equation was established for predicting the prognosis of the disease.

CONCLUSIONThe types of invasive procedure, MODS, surgery and prolonged hospital stay before antifungal therapy are the independent risk factors for fungal septicemia-related death, and the patients' prognosis can be predicted using Fisher's linear discriminant equation.