PULMONARY ASPERGILLUS INFECTION AFTER ORTHOTOPIC HEART TRANSPLANTATION

Mehmet Ali Özatik, Onurcan Tarcan, Şeref Küçüker, Deniz Süha Küçükaksu, Erol Şener, Oğuz Taşdemir

Türkiye Yüksek İhtisas Hastanesi, Kalp Damar Cerrahisi Kliniği, Ankara

We present a 56-year-old male patient, who had pulmonary aspergillus abscess after his heart transplantation. He was discharged after an uncomplicated hospital stay, but on postoperative 60th day he presented with dyspnea. On chest X-ray and thorax computerised tomography there was a right lung cavern. We started Amphotericin-B 2 mg/kg/day. We proposed bronchoscopy to perform a bronchial aspiration culture. Shortly after termination of the procedure, the patient had ventricular fibrillation and was lost following cardiac arrest. A lung cavern in a heart transplant recipient may be due to an aspergillus infection, which may cause death even under appropriate treatment. Bronchoscopy may carry high risk in these patients, so non-invasive diagnostic tools should suffice to start treatment.

Keywords : Heart transplantation, aspergillosis, bronchoscopy

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