Hyperimmunoglobulin prophylaxis, monitoring and preemptive ganciclovir treatment eliminate the risk of CMV infection to improve patient and renal allograft survival

Effect of cytomegalovirus prophylaxis with acyclovir on renal transplant survival

It is recognized that cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in transplant recipients may lead to graft loss. Prophylaxis with acyclovir has therefore gained widespread acceptance, but the debate on whether this intervention improves long term graft survival continues. All patients who received renal grafts at the National Renal Transplant Centre, Dublin, between January 1992 and December 1999 were retrospectively analyzed. During this time period, patients who were CMV positive and/or had received grafts from CMV-positive donors were administered prophylactic oral acyclovir 800 mg thrice daily, adjusted for calculated creatinine clearance, from the first day post-transplantation. This treatment was continued for three months unless the graft failed or the patient developed CMV disease or died. Graft and patient outcomes were compared in recipients who received acyclovir with those who did not. Over the study period, 935 patients received renal transplants in our center, of whom 487 were administered acyclovir. The incidence of CMV disease was 3.3 cases per 100 patients per annum in those who required prophylaxis. Despite prophylaxis, graft outcomes were found to be significantly worse (p value < 0.001) in the group that qualified for acyclovir. We conclude that acyclovir provides incomplete protection from the negative impact of CMV on graft survival.

Cytomegalovirus-Related Complications in Human Hand Transplantation

BACKGROUND

Up to date, 24 hands/thumbs have been transplanted in 18 patients. We herein report on cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, disease, and the adopted treatment.

METHODS

Immunosuppression consisted of tacrolimus-based triple-drug therapy with antithymocyte globuline or CD25-receptor antagonist induction. Donor/recipient CMV match was negative/negative (n=8), negative/positive (n=3), positive/positive (n=3), positive/negative (n=3) and unknown in one case. Six patients (three +/-, two +/+, and one -/+) received gancyclovir i.v. followed by oral gancyclovir or valgancyclovir for prophylaxis.

RESULTS

Patient and graft survival at a mean follow-up of 42.9 months were 100% and 91%, respectively. Of all patients tested for CMV, 45.5% developed CMV infection or disease. Two patients that were given a CMV-positive graft showed very high viral loads (550 and 1200/200000 leukocytes) after transplantation. Gancyclovir treatment failed to permanently control CMV in 80% of the patients experiencing CMV infection. Those patients requiring more toxic second-line therapies (foscarnet/cidofovir) suffered from side effects such as nephrotoxicity, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

CONCLUSIONS

CMV infection/disease complicated the postoperative course after composite tissue allograft (CTA) transplantation in five of nine recipients challenged with the virus. The close time correlation suggests an association between virus replication and rejection in some cases. CMV represents the major infectious threat in CTA transplantation. Therefore, CMV-mismatch should be avoided and prophylaxis with valgancyclovir and anti-CMV hyperimmunoglobulin should be mandatory.

The cost-effectiveness of prophylaxis with valaciclovir in the management of cytomegalovirus after renal transplantation

Prophylaxis-based antiviral treatment and intensive monitoring followed by pre-emptive antiviral treatment are both commonly used management strategies to reduce risk of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection following renal transplantation. This study employed a decision-model approach using published efficacy data and information from a recent survey of French clinical practice to consider the relative costs and outcomes associated with CMV prevention strategies for high-risk patient groups. The cost per case of treating tissue invasive and symptomatic CMV disease was estimated at euro 15,431 and euro 10,852, respectively. In the highest infection-risk patient group (positive donor with no previous CMV history) prophylactic oral valaciclovir was shown to avoid the greatest number of CMV disease cases (35 cases per 100 transplanted patients) and reduced the overall CMV-related costs per transplanted patient by around 14% over a'wait-and-treat' baseline strategy. In contrast, intensive monitoring and preemptive treatment resulted in a much higher cost per transplanted patient. This analysis suggests that prophylactic treatment remains the most cost-effective approach to the management of CMV in renal-transplanted patients. Further comparative studies between prophylactic and pre-emptive treatment would be a valuable addition to the current evidence based on CMV prevention.