1.
J Burn Care Res
; 31(3): 492-8, 2010.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-20453737
ABSTRACT
Viral-mediated organ disease is an infrequent but recognized complication of severe burn injury. This occurs primarily because of herpes family viruses such as cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus (HSV), and Epstein-Barr virus given their ability to establish lifelong latency after primary infection and reactivate in the setting of altered immune function. In this report, we describe a severely burned patient who succumbed to fulminant HSV-2 pneumonitis and hepatitis, and summarize the existing literature on HSV infections in this unique patient population. To our knowledge, this is the first report of disseminated visceral HSV-2 infection in a burn patient in the medical literature.