1994 Volume 8 Issue 1 Pages 7-11
During the past 18 years six patients with primary pulmonary cryptococcosis were treated surgically, 3 males and 3 females with an average age of 40.9 years. Four patients were asymptomatic and abnormal shadows were found on routine chest x-ray. One of the 2 symptomatic patients had meningitis. Five patients had solitary tumor-like shadows on chest x-ray and one had multiple nodular shadows. The lesions were located in the right upper lobe in 3, right middle lobe in one, right lower lobe in one and left lower lobe in one. In 5 patients the diagnosis was made by transbronchial or transcutaneous lung biopsy. The reasons for operation were poor response to antifungal drugs or difficulty of continuing drugs due to side effects in 3, meningitis in one, increase of shadow size in one and suspicion of lung cancer in one. The operative procedures were lobectomy in 2, segmentectomy in one and partial resection in 3. There were no serious postoperative complications.
One of the 6 patients died from cardiac failure one year and 6 months after operation. Five patients are alive and well from 2 to 17 years after lung resection. There was no postoperative meningitis or recurrent pulmonary cryptococcosis.
