Fluconazole prophylaxis prevents intra-abdominal candidiasis in high-risk surgical patients

Context

This study convincingly shows that fluconazole can be of significant benefit in patients at high-risk of invasive candidiasis. In this population, fluconazole treatment resulted in a statistically significant reduction in mortality and morbidity from Candida infection. The results from this study obviously require further confirmation, as the sample size was small. However, the evidence is strong, as this study was a randomized, controlled, double-blind trial. It will also be interesting to see whether the use of fluconazole prophylaxis will reduce mortality from Candida infections in other patient populations in the ICU.