Clinical Characteristics and Outcome of Candidemia: Experience from a Tertiary Referral Center in Saudi Arabia.

Background: bloodstream infections cause significant excess morbidity and mortality in the health-care setting. There is limited evidence regarding species causing invasive infections in Saudi Arabia.

Objective: To identify species causing bloodstream infection and determine the clinical outcome and factors associated with mortality in a tertiary center in Saudi Arabia.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study included all cases of positive blood culture for in patients admitted to King Abdulaziz Medical City, a tertiary care center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between January 1, 2013 and June 30, 2019.

Results: A total of 532 patients with candidemia were identified (male: 55.4%; mean age: 54 ± 26.2 years). The most common species isolated was (26.7%), followed by (22.7%), (22.2%), and (18.4%). Non- candidemia was more common in patients with diabetes (76.7%; = 0.0560), neutropenia (89.8%; = 0.0062), recent exposure to fluconazole (85.7%; = 0.0394), and active chemotherapy (83.1%; = 0.0128). In non-, susceptibility to fluconazole varied from 95.9% with to 41.5% with ; nonetheless, all species were highly susceptible to echinocandins. The overall 30- and 90-day mortality rates were 39.9% and 56.4%, respectively. The mortality rate was nonsignificantly higher with non- species at 30 days (41.2% vs. 35.9%; = 0.2634) and 90 days (58.2% vs. 51.4%; = 0.1620).

Conclusion: This study found a changing pattern in the species causing bloodstream infections and an epidemiological shift toward more non- Candida species in Saudi Arabia.