Successful Management of an Extremely Premature Infant with Congenital Candidiasis

Congenital candidiasis, which presents with a variety of clinical symptoms, is very rare in both term and preterm infants, and less than 100 neonatal cases have been reported in the medical literature. We describe the case of an extremely premature infant with congenital candidiasis, who was successfully treated and survived without major sequelae. A male infant was born at 25 weeks' gestation (weight, 834 g). He exhibited diffuse erythematous papules. Samples of his skin, pharyngeal mucus, gastric fluid, and tracheal aspirate were found to be Candida albicans-positive while blood cultures were negative. Further histopathological examinations revealed that Candida albicans mycelia had invaded the umbilical cord. After prompt antifungal therapy, the patient's skin lesions improved markedly, and he was discharged from hospital without any major complications. This report highlights the importance of characteristic skin lesions for the early diagnosis of Candida infections, especially in extremely premature infants.