Esophageal Cytomegalovirus and Herpes Simplex virus co-infection in an immunocompromised patient: Case report and review of literature

Abstract

Herpes simplex virus and Cytomegalovirus co-infection has been reported to occur in a variety of sites in immunocompromised patients. To our knowledge, few cases of such co-infection have been reported to occur in the esophagus. We report a case of a 60-year-old woman who was maintained on immunosuppressive therapy for a presumed diagnosis of pemphigus vulgaris, who presented with odynophagia. Investigations revealed ulcerative esophagitis caused by both HSV and CMV. The patient was treated with valganciclovir with full recovery. We also present the results of various studies on patients with similar presentation particularly those caused by HSV and CMV co-infection.

Keywords

• Co-infection
• Cytomegalovirus and herpes simplex virus
• Esophagus
• Immunocompromised