Successful treatment of acute severe graft-versus-host-disease in a pancreas-after-kidney transplant recipient: case report

Transplant Proc. 2014 Sep;46(7):2446-9. doi: 10.1016/j.transproceed.2014.06.049. Epub 2014 Aug 30.

Abstract

The development of acute graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) in recipients of pancreas transplants is a rare and quite often a fatal post-transplantation complication. We present a 38-year-old male with a longstanding history of type 1 diabetes mellitus and end-stage kidney disease, with a living unrelated kidney transplant from his wife for 3 years, who received an enteric-drained 5-antigen HLA-mismatched deceased-donor pancreas. Five weeks after transplantation, he presented with spiking fevers, severe skin rash, diarrhea, pancytopenia, and increasingly abnormal liver function tests. Skin biopsies were consistent with grade 3 acute GVHD. The patient was treated for GVHD with escalated doses of tacrolimus, pulse doses of steroids, and basiliximab. He was discharged after a 4-week hospital stay with complete resolution of his rash, fever, abnormal liver enzymes, and leukopenia. He remained in good health with excellent kidney and pancreas allograft function 3 years later.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal / therapeutic use
  • Basiliximab
  • Glucocorticoids / therapeutic use
  • Graft vs Host Disease / therapy*
  • Humans
  • Immunosuppressive Agents / therapeutic use
  • Kidney Transplantation*
  • Male
  • Methylprednisolone / therapeutic use
  • Pancreas Transplantation*
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / therapeutic use
  • Tacrolimus / therapeutic use

Substances

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal
  • Glucocorticoids
  • Immunosuppressive Agents
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • Basiliximab
  • Tacrolimus
  • Methylprednisolone