SSK Tepecik Eğitim Hastanesi, Çocuk Enfeksiyon Hastalıkları Kliniği, İzmir

Leishmaniasis has three clinical forms: cutaneous, mucocotaneous and visceral (kala-azar) leishmaniasis. Visceral leishmaniasis in infancy is mostly seen between the ages 2-4 and visceral infection causes long standing fever, weakness, weight loss, hepatosplenomegaly and pancytopenia. Therapy for visceral leishmaniasis was limited to pentavalent antimonials until recently. Amphotericin-B has been proved to be an effective drug for the therapy of the disease. We treated 5 cases of visceral leishmaniasis with pentavelent antimonials (Glucantime) and 4 cases with lipid complex amphotericin-B (Abelced). Amphotericin-B treatment, compared with the pentavalent antimonial therapy, resulted with more rapid clinical improvement and the hospitalization period of the cases was shortened. For the 6 months follow up period after the therapy no relaps was occured in cases treated with amphotericin-B. On the other hand, one case treated with pentavalent antimonials died in the seventh day of the therapy and two of the cases relapsed during the follow up period. Currently, amphotericin-B is present in Turkey. However, there is difficulty in the availability of pentavalent antimonials. With the new formulation of lipid complex amphotericin-B, side effects have been decreased and the cost of lipid complex amphotericin-B is reduced. Thus, it can be a primary therapy choice for visceral leishmaniasis.