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The aim of the study is to specify the indication for surgery in the treatment of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (API). From January 1991 to October 1996 nineteen patients who had been treated with chemotherapy and associated marrow aplasia and suffering from API were operated on. At the time of the surgical intervention all of the patients were treated with antifungal drugs. The delay between the start of their symptoms and the start of treatment was 2.6 days (range: 0-17 days). 1. The risk of a massive haemoptysis by contact between the fungal infection and the pulmonary artery led to eight urgent surgical operations: six lobectomies and two lobectomies associated with segmentectomy. The mean level of polymorphonuclear neutrophils was 296 cell/mm3 (0-1,000). Plastic surgery on the pulmonary artery was carried out in three patients. One patient died after the operation with progression of the API. The duration of postoperative stay was 13 days (6-18). 2. Planned surgery consisted of a resection of the residual mass after antifungal treatment and a diagnostic approach to the intraparenchymatous mass of indeterminate aetiology. A resection of the residual masses (in spite of antifungal treatment) was carried out in seven patients: before further haematological therapy in six cases and in one case for a superinfected lesion. The type of resection was: a lobectomy (n = 4), a lingulectomy (n = 1) and an atypical resection (n = 2). No postoperative deaths were reported. The patients left the surgical service between the seventh and twentieth day postoperatively. The surgery was used in four patients as the diagnostic approach in view of intraparenchymal masses of unknown aetiology and had enabled a fungal mycelium to be isolated at the centre of persisting inflammation. Antifungal treatment sometimes associated with surgery allowed for a better prognosis in patients suffering from invasive pulmonary aspergillosis.

In neutropenic patients, one way of improving invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) prognosis is an earlier initiation of the antifungal treatment. We report our experience with 36 cases of IPA in 35 patients with haematological malignancies. When aspergillosis was diagnosed, all but 2 patients were neutropenic (PMN500; median duration = 20 days). The most frequent clinical signs were cough (100%), chest pain (78%) and haemoptysis (58%). Before the diagnosis of IPA, Aspergillus antibody test was positive in 60% of cases. A thoracic CT-scan was performed in 23 patients and demonstrated highly suggestive images in 22 cases (96%) with presence of CT halo sign (n = 13) or CT air-crescent sign (n = 9). Moreover, Aspergillus antigen test was positive in 13 of 28 tested patients. IPA diagnosis was determined to be definite in 23 cases and probable or possible in 13 cases. Thirty-five patients were treated: in 3 cases with amphotericin B (2 failures) and in 32 cases with itraconazole (7 failures and 25 successes or improvements). In 7 cases (including 5 emergencies) surgical resection was successfully combined with the medical treatment. In neutropenic patients with fever, we consider that thoracic CT-scan and repeated biological tests (Aspergillus antibody and antigen tests) can be used to establish the diagnosis of aspergillosis. Early treatment with itraconazole and surgical resection appears to improve prognosis.