What Could Be the Role of Antifungal Lock-Solutions? From Bench to Bedside.

Candidemia related to the presence of a biofilm are often reported in patients with vascular catheters. Once they are mature, biofilms are persistent infectious reservoirs, and the yeasts dispersed from biofilms can cause infections. Sessile yeasts typically display increased levels of resistance to most antimicrobial agents and systemic treatments usually fail to eradicate previously formed fungal biofilms. In a curative strategy, antifungal lock therapy may help to sterilize catheters, with very high concentrations of antifungal agents, which are not compatible with systemic use. This strategy has been studied by several authors in in vitro and in vivo studies, and more rarely, in clinical settings for adult and paediatric patients. Our study aims to assess the efficacy of the antifungal solutions used for lock therapy and demonstrated by the different teams.