Successful Treatment of Acute Severe Graft-Versus-Host-Disease in a Pancreas-After-Kidney Transplant Recipient: Case Report

The development of acute graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) in recipients of pancreas transplants is a rare and quite often a fatal post-transplantation complication. We present a 38-year-old male with a longstanding history of type 1 diabetes mellitus and end-stage kidney disease, with a living unrelated kidney transplant from his wife for 3 years, who received an enteric-drained 5-antigen HLA–mismatched deceased-donor pancreas. Five weeks after transplantation, he presented with spiking fevers, severe skin rash, diarrhea, pancytopenia, and increasingly abnormal liver function tests. Skin biopsies were consistent with grade 3 acute GVHD. The patient was treated for GVHD with escalated doses of tacrolimus, pulse doses of steroids, and basiliximab. He was discharged after a 4-week hospital stay with complete resolution of his rash, fever, abnormal liver enzymes, and leukopenia. He remained in good health with excellent kidney and pancreas allograft function 3 years later.