Disseminated sporotrichosis with Sporothrix schenckii fungemia.

The laboratory diagnosis and therapeutic management of disseminated sporotrichosis can present many problems to the clinical laboratory and the clinician. Culturing of clinical specimens is necessary because the direct microscopic examination of specimens for Sporothrix schenckii often is not useful. Although this organism has been recovered from many specimen sites, recovery from blood has been rare. This report summarizes data concerning recovery of S. schenckii from clinical specimens and the use of serologic and fungal antimicrobial susceptibility data. It appears to be the first antemortem recovery of S. schenckii from blood reported since 1909.