Organ Transplantation Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Organ Transplantation, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery.

Late-onset tacrolimus-associated cerebellar atrophia in a heart transplant recipient.

Kaczmarek I, Schmauss D, Sodian R, Beiras-Fernandez A, Oberhoffer M, Daebritz S, Schoenberg SO, Reichart B

Department of Cardiac Surgery, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany. ingo.kaczmarek@med.uni-muenchen.de

Tacrolimus is a macrolide immunosuppressant frequently used after solid-organ transplantation. Moderate and severe neurologic side effects have been reported in patients receiving tacrolimus. Cerebral neurotoxicity is a rare but fatal calcineurin inhibitor-related complication, especially in kidney and liver transplant recipients. Often a reduction or a change in immunosuppressive regimen is the only means of clinical management. Herein we report a case of a 31-year-old man who developed cerebellar atrophia while under immunosuppressive therapy 9 years after heart transplantation. His neurologic constitution ameliorated after an immunosuppressant switch from tacrolimus to sirolimus.

Published 19 January 2007 in J Heart Lung Transplant, 26(1): 89-92.
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