CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Pathogenesis and Therapy
Spinal infection caused by Aspergillus terreus in immunocompetent individuals: a case report and literature review
Provisionally accepted
Lingling Liu1
Mei-Juan PEI1
Yijie Ma1Xu Guo1Shuai Guo2
Haolin Sun3Junqi Zheng1Xueyuan Su1Lihua Meng1Xiaodong Zhang1*- 1Peking University First Hospital Taiyuan Hospital, Taiyuan, China
- 2Fenyang College of Shanxi Medical University, Fenyang, China
- 3Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, China
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Spinal infections, particularly those caused by Aspergillus terreus, represent complex and rare clinical challenges. They are even less common in patients with a normal immune system. This case report details the complex diagnosis and treatment process of a 52-year-old patient who developed afemale with A. terreus-induced spinal infection caused by Aspergillus terreus.. Diagnosis was onceinitially delayed due to non-specific symptomsclinical manifestations and unclearambiguous imaging findings. After treatment with voriconazole, (a targeted antifungal agent,), the patient's clinical symptoms and imaging indicators improved significantly—this fully demonstrates the effectiveness of voriconazole in treating such specific fungal spinal infections. This case serves as a reminderhighlights that in cases of spinal infection in patients with a normal immune system, the possibility of fungal infection mustshould be taken seriously. It also considered in immunocompetent patients with suspected spinal infection, and emphasizes the importance of timely diagnosis and the implementation of individualized targeted antifungal therapy.
Keywords: Fungi, Spinal infection, Aspergillus terreus, mycosis, Voriconazole
Received: 08 Sep 2025; Accepted: 25 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, PEI, Ma, Guo, Guo, Sun, Zheng, Su, Meng and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaodong Zhang
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