Invasive aspergillosis infection in the central nervous system after liver transplantation: a case report and literature review / 中华器官移植杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To summarize and analyze the clinical treatment of aspergillus infection in the central nervous system.Methods:Data was obtained from a recipient who were diagnosed with invasive aspergillosis in the central nervous system after liver transplantation.We retrospectively analyzed the clinical character of the recipient." Liver transplantation" , " Aspergillus" , " brain" and " aspergillus" were searched for literature published in English or Chinese in Wanfang data, CNKI and PubMed database for nearly 5 years until January 2022.Results:A 33 years old recipient was admitted to the hospital with fatigue, chest distress and shortness of breath after liver transplantation on postoperative day(POD)48.On the computed tomography(CT)scan of the chest, multiple exudative lesions was observed in both lungs.Multiple sputum cultures were grown as Candida albicans.The symptoms of chest tightness and shortness of breath were significantly improved by treating with caspofungin compared before.On POD 79, the recipient developed stubborn nausea and vomiting.Cranial enhanced magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)showed central nervous system(CNS)infection.Numerous traditional pathogenic microorganisms tests of cerebrospinal fluid(CSF)were all negative.With the help of metagenomics next generation sequencing(mNGS), aspergillus fumigatus was detected in CSF.The recipient received therapy with voriconazole and rehabilitation.Therapy with voriconazole was continuous for 8 months.Unfortunately, the recipient developed cholestasis due to repeated biliary infection and eventually died of liver failure 13 months later.Conclusions:Although the mortality rate of aspergillus infection in the central nervous system is very high after liver transplantation, timely and effective treatment is still expected to improve its prognosis.