Dramatic response to therapeutic plasma exchange in acute transverse myelitis following dengue fever: A case report

Abstract

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease which has reached fearsome proportions in the past few years. Acute transverse myelitis (ATM) is a rare complication of dengue characterized by onset of bilateral lower limb weakness, paresthesia, and urinary retention and magnetic resonance imaging of the whole spine shows diffuse areas of abnormal hyperintensity on T2-weighted images involving the cord in the cervical and the dorsal region extending up to the level of conus. Treatment is usually steroids, intravenous immunoglobulin, and therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE). We report a case of ATM in a young male patient who was successfully treated by TPE.

Keywords

• dengue fever
• immunoglobulins
• therapeutic plasma exchange