Antemortem diagnosis of gastrointestinal mucormycosis in neonates: report of two cases and review of literature.

Abstract

Gastrointestinal mucormycosis has been reported more frequently in adults than in children. Due to high mortality diagnosis is usually made at autopsy. Only 3 cases of neonates surviving this disease have been described. We report two cases of preterm neonates presenting clinically with symptoms of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), but lacking radiological characteristics of NEC where histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of gastrointestinal mucormycosis involving caecum and appendix.