Oral versus intravenous therapy in the treatment of systemic mycosis.
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.
Perea
J R Azanza
JR
Servicio de Farmacología Clínica, Clínica Universitaria, Universidad de Navarra, Avenida Pío XII sn Pamplona 31008, Spain. jrazanza@unav.es
Díaz De Rada
B Sádaba
BS
Quetglas
E García
EG
Juarez
M J Muñóz
MJ
D000284:Administration, Oral; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D009181:Mycoses / Q000188:drug therapy*
D000935:Antifungal Agents