Standard antifungal therapy in neutropenic patients.

Fungal infections are life-threatening complications in patients with prolonged neutropenia. Amphotericin B, which is fungicidal and has a broad spectrum of antifungal activity, remains the current gold standard agent. However, because of its low therapeutic index, new lipid formulations of amphotericin B have been developed with better tolerance and less toxicity. The use of 5-fluorocytosine is waning because of the medullar toxicity of this agent. Fluconazole and itraconazole are both fungistatic and are more convenient for the treatment of fungal infections in haemodynamically stable patients.