Fatal varicella hepatitis in an asthmatic adult after short-term corticosteroid treatment.
case_report · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 16137553.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
A 28-year-old male patient, treated with prednisone for bronchitis with sibilant rales, developed fever with abdominal pain and generalized vesicular rash after coming in contact with varicella-infected children. He was hospitalized after having a seizure. Laboratory values revealed hepatitis and rapidly fulminant hepatic insufficiency with disseminated intravascular coagulation. Despite acyclovir treatment, the patient died 4 days after admission. Clinical presentation could evoke a Reye's syndrome, but liver biopsy showed massive coagulative necrosis. This report demonstrates the increased risk of complicated varicella associated with the use of corticosteroids, even for a short period of time.