Fatal lactic acidosis possibly related to ganciclovir therapy in a renal transplant patient?
(2015) Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine — Vol. 19, n° 3, p. 177-179 (2015)
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- Ganciclovir is widely prescribed in renal transplant patients for the prevention or treatment of herpes and cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections. Side-effects are usually represented by hematological disorders, and particularly leucopenia. We report a case of severe and fatal lactic acidosis developing in a 76-year-old renal transplant woman, a few days after ganciclovir has been introduced to treat CMV pneumonia. Usual etiologies of lactic acidosis were ruled out. A high lactate/pyruvate molecular ratio was suggestive of a respiratory chain dysfunction. With the analogy to nucleoside analogues-related lactic acidosis, we suggest that ganciclovir may exceptionally be responsible for respiratory chain dysfunction and subsequent lactic acidosis, and we discuss potential risk factors in our patient.
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Wittebole, X., Morelle, J., Vincent, M.-F., & Hantson, P. (2015). Fatal lactic acidosis possibly related to ganciclovir therapy in a renal transplant patient? Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine, 19(3), 177-179. https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-5229.152772 (Original work published 2015)