Importance: Latent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is present in more than half the adult population, and a viral reactivation (ie, when the virus becomes measurable in body fluids such as blood) can occur in up to one-third of these individuals during episodes of critical illness.
Objective: To determine whether antiviral therapy is safe and effective for preventing CMV reactivation in a general population of critically ill patients.
Design, setting, and participants: A single-center, open-label, randomized, controlled clinical trial recruited 124 CMV-seropositive patients undergoing mechanical ventilation for at least 24 hours in the intensive care unit between January 1, 2012, and January 31, 2014. The mean baseline Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score of all patients was 17.6.
Interventions: Patients were randomized to receive anti-CMV prophylaxis with valacyclovir hydrochloride (n = 34) or low-dose valganciclovir hydrochloride (n = 46) for up to 28 days to suppress viral reactivation, or to a control group with no intervention (n = 44).
Main outcomes and measures: Time to first CMV reactivation in blood within the 28-day follow-up period following initiation of the study drug.
Results: Among the 124 patients in the study (46 women and 78 men; mean [SD] age, 56.9 [16.9] years), viral reactivation in the blood occurred in 12 patients in the control group, compared with 1 patient in the valganciclovir group and 2 patients in the valacyclovir group (combined treatment groups vs control: hazard ratio, 0.14; 95% CI 0.04-0.50). Although this trial was not powered to assess clinical end points, the valacyclovir arm was halted prematurely because of higher mortality; 14 of 34 patients (41.2%) had died by 28 days, compared with 5 of 37 (13.5%) patients in the control arm at the point of the decision to halt this arm. Other safety end points showed similar outcomes between groups.
Conclusions and relevance: Antiviral prophylaxis with valacyclovir or low-dose valganciclovir suppresses CMV reactivation in patients with critical illness. However, given the higher mortality, a large-scale trial would be needed to determine the clinical efficacy and safety of CMV suppression.
Trial registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01503918.