The incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is higher in organ transplant recipients. The lesions are mainly cutaneous and isolated mucosal involvement is rare. We herewith report a 26-years-old male patient, who underwent a living unrelated donor renal transplantation for chronic interstitial nephropathy. His immunosuppression protocol consisted of corticosteroids, cyclosporine & immuran. Twenty-five months later, presented with a purple hyperplastic lesion and mucosal nodules more than 8 mm in diameter in hard palate and gingiva of oral cavity. He reported that the lesion had been present for 1 month. Further examination confirmed that no similar lesions were present on his skin. Computed tomography of the oral cavity revealed multiple lytic bone lesions. Histological examination coupled with immunohistochemistry was suggestive of KS. The patient tested positive for anti-Herpes Human Virus antibodies. Cyclosporine & immmuran were withdrawn and rapamycin was introduced. This resulted in a regression of both mucosal and bone KS in two to three month. Two-years fallow up didn’t show any effect of flair up of KS. Our case suggests that rapamycin-based immunosuppression offers a promising approach to the management of post-transplant KS, particularly with mucosal involvement.
Volume : 6
Issue : 4
Pages : 92
Department of Nephrology, Modarres Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences,Tehran, Iran