Volume 48 (1987) Issue 5 Pages 639-644
It is difficult to diagnose primary pulmonary cryptococcosis before operation, and it is often resected to differentiate it from lung cancer. This report describes our three cases of primary pulmonary cryptococcosis, including one case complicated by postoperative meningitis, and reviews 115 cases in Japan. Results indicated that this disease had gradually increased in number each year. The ratio of male to female was 6:1. The disease rarely produced symptoms and was often discovered at health examinations. People age 20-59 years were most frequently affected. It generally appeared as a nodular or tumor-like shadow on chest X-ray film, but not as a calcification. Treatment consisted of antimycotic agents and/or resection. The prognosis was good irrespective of method of treatment, but two postoperative central nervous system (CNS) infections occurred. It is desirable to carefully observe patients not given antimycotic agents whose lesion is a single nodule or has been resected in advance because the disease has a tendency to heal spontaneously and defense against CNS infection necessitates medications with many side effects.