Published in:
Open Access 01-12-2014 | Case report
New foe treated with old guns – supportive role of steroids in the treatment of acute severe hepatitis E
Published in: BMC Gastroenterology | Issue 1/2014
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Background
Autochthonous hepatitis E has been observed with growing incidence in industrialized countries. Hepatitis E virus infection causes an acute hepatitis with spontaneous resolution in the majority of cases. However, in individual cases, hepatitis E may lead to life-threatening acute liver failure. In this report, we describe a case of acute liver injury caused by an autochthonous hepatitis E that resolved under steroid treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first case report describing supportive steroid monotherapy for acute liver injury due to hepatitis E.
Case presentation
A 63-year-old Caucasian male presented with acute liver injury of unknown origin. After excluding the most prevalent causes of acute liver injury, liver histology revealed signs of immune-mediated toxic or drug-induced liver injury. Therefore, immunosuppressive treatment with prednisolone was started. After initialization of steroid treatment, polymerase chain reaction analyses of peripheral blood and liver tissue revealed an acute hepatitis E virus infection (genotype 3). Under sustained steroid treatment, acute liver injury improved and hepatitis E infection resolved.
Conclusion
Steroid treatment might be an option to prevent progress of life-threatening liver failure and liver transplantation in patients with hepatitis E-induced acute liver injury and high-grade inflammation.