Sepsis due to Rhodotorula related to use of indwelling central venous catheters

With increased use of surgically implanted silastic central venous catheters, there has been an increase in the recovery from blood cultures at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York) of environmental and skin organisms including the red yeast Rhodotorula. From 1985 through 1989, 23 patients had catheter-related Rhodotorula sepsis. All 23 patients had indwell-ing central venous catheters that had been in place from 1 to 22 months (average, 9.3 months) prior to the detection of fungemia. All patients had blood drawn both through the catheter and from a peripheral source, and only one patient had a peripheral blood culture positive for Rhodo-torula. Colony counts of yeast from the catheter cultures often exceeded 100 (15 patients) and even 1,000 (seven patients) cfu/mL of blood. Thirteen of the patients were treated with antifun-gal therapy and had the catheter removed, and five patients received antifungal therapy without catheter removal (suggesting that compulsory removal of the catheter may not always be re-quired). Five patients had the catheter removed without antifungal therapy. All patients survived the fungemic episode and experienced no recurrence of the infection. In the last few years surgically implanted central venous catheters have been used with increasing frequency at Memo