Oral versus intravenous therapy in the treatment of systemic mycosis

ABSTRACT

The great majority of systemic fungal infections require long-term therapy that often extends 6-12 months, particularly in immunosuppressed patients. It can be difficult to comply with this requirement when the drug to be used is only available for intravenous administration, because problems related to maintaining a permeable venous pathway for long periods arise. The availability of an intravenously (IV) and orally (PO) administered drug can solve this problem by making sequential therapy possible.

Voriconazole is a new antifungal agent that, apart from satisfying this requirement because it has a high oral bioavailability, presents a broad spectrum of antifungal activity that makes its use possible, a priori, in the initial and/or sequential IV/PO treatment of any systemic mycotic infection.

Based on current costs there is potential for savings compared with liposomal amphotericin B.

CITATION  Clin Microbiol Infect. 2004 Mar;10 Suppl 1:96-106. doi: 10.1111/j.1470-9465.2004.00846.x