Introduction:

candidemia is considered the most frequent type of fungemia associated with patients hospitalized in intensive care units. It is a rapidly progressive condition with high mortality, difficult to diagnose early and resistant to treatment.

Objective:

to characterize the epidemiological, clinical and microbiological aspects of Candida species isolated from children hospitalized in intensive care units.

Methods:

a descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out on 143 isolates of Candida species corresponding to blood cultures from patients under 18 years of age and obtained in the Microbiology laboratory at “Mariana Grajales” Gynecological and Obstetric University Hospital, from January 2009 to December 2018. Contingency tables were used (Chi- square and Cramer's V tests); age, gender, risk factors, species and hospital services were the used variables.

Results:

the largest candidemia isolates corresponded to female patients aged between 29 days and 18 years. All were subjected to the use of antimicrobials and mechanical ventilation. The highest number of isolates in 9-year-old patients corresponded to Candida tropicalis, which was the most isolated species in the Neonatology and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, but not in the Intermediate Care Unit where Candida predominated without specifying the species. For these reasons, it can be pointed out that there is a relationship between species and hospital services.

Conclusions:

female patients older than 29 days and up to 18 years hospitalized in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit predominated; the most isolated species was Candida tropicalis.