Copyright
©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Feb 16, 2018; 6(2): 11-19
Published online Feb 16, 2018. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v6.i2.11
Published online Feb 16, 2018. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v6.i2.11
Fatal fulminant herpes simplex hepatitis following surgery in an adult
Yoshihiro Yokoi, Takeshi Kaneko, Tomoki Sawayanagi, Youichi Watahiki, Department of Surgery, Shinshiro Municipal Hospital, Shinshiro 441-1387, Japan
Yasuo Takano, Department of Pathology, Shinshiro Municipal Hospital, Shinshiro 441-1387, Japan
Author contributions: Yokoi Y, Kaneko T, Sawayanagi T and Watahiki Y participated in the diagnosis and management of this case; Takano Y provided a critical and valuable discussion on the histopathologic study.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent to publish was obtained from the family of the patient.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors state that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Yoshihiro Yokoi, MD, Doctor, Department of Surgery, Shinshiro Municipal Hospital, 32-1 Kitahata, Shinshiro 441-1387, Japan. y.yokoi@hospital.shinshiro.aichi.jp
Telephone: +81-536-222171 Fax: +81-536-222850
Received: November 4, 2017
Peer-review started: November 4, 2017
First decision: November 30, 2017
Revised: December 15, 2017
Accepted: January 16, 2018
Article in press: January 16, 2018
Published online: February 16, 2018
Processing time: 96 Days and 2.3 Hours
Peer-review started: November 4, 2017
First decision: November 30, 2017
Revised: December 15, 2017
Accepted: January 16, 2018
Article in press: January 16, 2018
Published online: February 16, 2018
Processing time: 96 Days and 2.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Fatal fulminant herpetic hepatitis developed in a 72-year-old healthy man following ordinary surgery for biliary stones. A. sudden onset of hepatitis associated with high fever and leukopenia emerged on postoperative day 5, followed by a rapid and lethal course (died on day 9), despite an acyclovir treatment on day 8. A literature review showed that (1): A wide spectrum of surgical procedures is involved; and (2): High mortality (87%) associated with low rates of ante-mortem diagnosis (20%) and acyclovir treatment (20%). An early clinical suspension and prompt empirical anti-viral intervention are imperative for postsurgical hepatitis with undetermined etiology, characterized by fever and leucopenia.