ABSTRACT
Several reviews have shown that COVID-19 in children is a relatively mild disease. However, a rare complication affecting children and adolescents after COVID-19 has been identified. Pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with COVID-19 (PIMS-TS), which in some cases manifests itself as a hyperinflammatory syndrome with a multiorgan failure, may lead to death. We report a case of a 17-year-old patient who was admitted to the hospital with cardiogenic shock of unknown etiology. The disease was life-threatening, thus necessitating mechanical ventilation, circulatory support, and extracorporeal therapy due to renal and liver dysfunction. The patient tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction. Other infectious causes of illness were excluded. However, the patient had a positive IgG antibody test result and high levels of interleukin-6, which helped to diagnose PIMS-TS. Intravenous immunoglobulin and steroid therapies were initiated, unfortunately, with poor outcome. The patient's critical condition, particularly end-stage heart failure, led to mechanical circulatory support implantation and finally orthotopic heart transplantation. After the surgery, the patient's condition improved gradually. PIMS-TS manifests itself with different clinical images and as a state of varying severity, ultimately causing multiorgan dysfunction with shock resembling toxic shock syndrome. Ultimately, myocardial complications of PIMS-TS necessitated heart transplantation in the described patient.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Heart Transplantation , Adolescent , COVID-19/complications , Child , Heart Transplantation/adverse effects , Humans , SARS-CoV-2 , Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome/diagnosis , Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome/etiologyABSTRACT
In the pediatric population there is a shortage in the number of hearts available for transplantation. However, sometimes a heart transplant is urgently required to save lives. The problem arises when the patient is hyperimmunized and there is a positive crossmatch with the only available donor. We present such a case of a 9-year-old patient with dilated cardiomyopathy on ventricular assist device, in whom it was possible to perform a successful HT and also apply a successive prevention against graft rejection.