Empyema Associated With Pulmonary Sporotrichosis

Abstract

Sporothrix schenckii produces an insidious debilitating illness in humans. The lungs are seldom involved and pleural involvement is distinctly unusual, with only four patients described in the literature. We have described a patient with both parenchymal lung disease and pleural effusion. The characteristics of the pleural fluid were unlike those previously reported, and suggest that the coexistence of a parenchymal Sporothrix infiltrate may alter the nature of the pleural fluid to mimic an empyema rather than a self-limited hypersensitivity reaction.