Tracheal stenosis following tracheotomy in a COVID-19 patient.

Hemodialyzed patients with COVID-19 are at risk for severe complications from acute respiratory distress syndrome, requiring admission to the intensive-care unit for invasive mechanical ventilation. Post tracheotomy stenosis can be a life-threatening condition that commonly occurs after iatrogenic injury secondary to tracheotomy or tracheal intubation. We report a case of a 44-year-old female patient on maintenance haemodialysis who presented a COVID-19-related ARDS that required mechanical ventilation for 4 weeks, followed by a persistent stridor and finally succumbed, 1 month after being discharged from intensive care unit, from a severe respiratory distress due to a tracheal stenosis. Our aim is to highlight the importance of the early recognition and management of post tracheotomy stenosis in patients with persistent respiratory difficulty as stridor after prolonged intubation requiring tracheotomy, in order to improve the prognosis of these patients.

Undetected Iatrogenic Drug-Induced Complications in a Hemodialyzed Anuric Patient: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Anuric hemodialyzed end-stage renal disease patients are prone to multiple complications and comorbidities and are therefore often treated with various medications. Adverse drug reactions and risk factors leading to them can be difficult to discern in such polymedicated patients. Most problems regarding low phosphate levels are frequently underdiagnosed in clinical practice and sometimes overlooked in these regularly hyperphosphatemic patients. Hemodialysis vascular accesses are frequently subject to infections and therefore require adapted antibiotic treatments. We report a case of an occult severe multifactorial hypophosphatemia in an anuric hemodialyzed patient with multiple comorbidities who required two hospitalizations for encephalopathy, seizures, and cardiac failure. Retrospective analysis of the medical record revealed several underlying causes of hypophosphatemia, as well as undetected risk factors for adverse drug reactions related to cephalosporins. A global approach to these concerns in routine clinical practice would raise awareness of often disregarded issues related to hypophosphatemia and drug prescription in these patients.

Iatrogenic Infective Endocarditis in Hemodialysis Patients: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Foreign bodies such as implanted cardiac devices are susceptible to infections and may be involved in infective endocarditis. Exposure to pathogens, by frequent use of intravascular accesses for hemodialysis (i.e., catheters or fistulas), combined with high rates of degenerative heart valve diseases in hemodialysis patients, both favor the development of infective endocarditis in this population. The mitral and aortic valves are predominantly implicated in endocardial infections. The involvement of both mitral and tricuspid valves is rare in the general population but can occur in hemodialysis patients with implanted cardiac devices. Infective endocarditis is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates among hemodialysis patients, mostly because of the complications of septic emboli. Prevention, prophylaxis, and early diagnosis of endocarditis can be lifesaving in this fragile population. We report a case of right and left heart methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis with cerebral septic emboli in an elderly hemodialysis patient carrier of an arteriovenous fistula and an ipsilateral nonleadless pacemaker.

Efficacy of systematic coronavirus screening by PCR and viral cultures in addition to triage in limiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 within a hemodialysis unit.

BACKGROUND: Patients with end-stage-renal-disease (ESRD) undergoing hemodialysis (HD) represent a vulnerable population for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, due to their intrinsic fragility and increased exposure to the virus. Therefore, applying effective screening strategies and infection control measures is essential to control the spread of the epidemic within hemodialysis centers. OBJECTIVE: Description and evaluation of the efficacy of systematic screening by rt-PCR and viral cultures, in addition to triage to limit the spread of the epidemic. Evaluation of the performance of these tests using "post-hoc" SARS-CoV-2 serology as a surrogate marker of infection. METHODS: One hundred and forty-four patients undergoing hemodialysis in the Nephrology-Hemodialysis center of CHU Brugmann, Brussels, benefited from systematic virological screening using viral cultures in asymptomatic patients, or molecular tests (rt-PCR) for symptomatic ones, in addition to general prevention measures. Post-hoc serology was performed in all patients. RESULTS: Thirty-eight (26.3%) individuals were infected with SARS-CoV-2. Seventeen infected patients (44.7%) were asymptomatic and thus detected by viral culture. Our strategy allowed us to detect and isolate 97.4% of the infected patients, as proven by post-hoc serology. Only one patient, missed by clinical screening and sequential viral cultures, had a positive serology. CONCLUSION: The implementation of a control and prevention strategy based on a systematic clinical and virological screening showed its effectiveness in limiting (and shortening) the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic within our hemodialysis unit.

A Rare Case of a Metastatic Malignant Abrikossoff Tumor.

Abrikossoff tumor, also called granular cell tumor (GCT), is a neoplasm of the soft tissues which is most commonly a solitary, painless, and benign tumor. However, 2% of Abrikossoff tumors can be malignant. We report here the case of a 75-year-old male who presented a local recurrence of Abrikossoff tumor of the left thigh. The anatomopathological analysis concluded to a malignant GCT, and the F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography showed multiple lesions in the lymph nodes and bones. The potential conversion to malignancy should alert practitioners because of the extremely poor prognosis. The diagnosis of malignant granular cell tumor should be based on a bundle of clinical and histological features and not solely on histologic features because of the challenging distinction between malignant and benign tumors due to the lack of well-defined criteria for the diagnosis of malignancy. Large size and recurrence are the most important clinical features predicting malignant behavior. Patients with a history of Abrikossoff tumor should be followed closely to monitor recurrence and malignant transformation. The apparent originality of our observation - which could lie in the evolution of a GCT tumor, initially considered as benign, to a malignant form - has to be challenged regarding the issue of classifying some cases according to the classical "benign" and "malignant" dichotomy.