Summary
We report the case history of a 54-year-old man who developed a fatal neurological disorder 4 years after a succesful tympanoplasty with homograft pericardium. The final diagnosis of this case was Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. This infectious spongiform encephalopathy is probably caused by a slow virus that can be transmitted by transplantation materials. The possible accidental transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease by the use of homograft materials in otologic surgery is discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bernoulli C, Siegfried J, Baumgartner G, Regli F, Rabinowicz T, Gajdusek DC, Gibbs CJ (1977) Danger of accidental person-to-person transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease by surgery. Lancet I:478–479
Brown P, Gibbs JC, Gajdusek DC, Cathala F, LaBauge R (1986) Transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded human brain tissue. N Engl J Med 315: 534
Davanipour DVM, Alter M, Sobel E, Asher D, Gajdusek DC (1985) Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease: possible medical risk factors. Neurology 35:1483–1486
Davis AE (1988) Homograft materials in otolaryngology: the risk of transmitting human immunodeficiency virus. Clin Otolaryngol 13:159–161
Duffy P, Wolf J, Collins G, DeVoe AG, Streeten B, Cowen D(1974) Possible person-to-person transmission of CreutzfeldtJacob disease. N Engl J Med 290:12: 692–693
Gibbs CJ, Gajdusek CD, Latarjet R (1978) Unusual resistance to ionizing radiation of the viruses of kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease and scrapie. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 75:6268–6270
Koch TK, Berg BO, De Arnold SJ, Gravina RJ (1985) Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in a young adult with idiopathic hypopituitarism; possible relation to the administration of cadaveric human growth hormone. N Engl J Med 313:734–738
Lesinski SG (1980) Homograft tympanoplasty. In: Paparella MM, Shumrick DA (eds) Otolaryngology, vol 2. Saunders, Philadelphia, pp 1537–1547
Manuelidis EE, Angelo JN, Gorgacz EJ, Manuelidis L (1977) Transmission of Creutzfeldt disease to syrian hamster. Lancet 1:479
Miller DC (1988) Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in histopathology technicians. N Engl J Med 318:853–854
MMWR (1987) Rapidly progressive dementia in a patient who received a cadaveric dura mater graft. JAMA 257:1036–1037
Tomkuson BE, Corsellis JAN (1984) Aging and dementias. In: Adam JH, Corsellis JAN, Duchen LW (eds) Greenfield's neurology. Arnold, London, pp 997–1003
Van der Graff M, Diepersloot RJA (1986) Transmission of human immunodeficiency virus; a review. Infection 14:203–212
Will RG, Matthews WB (1982) Evidence for case-to-case transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. N Engl J Med 45: 235–238
Wullstein H (1952) Funktionelle Operationen im Mittelohr mit Hilfe des freien Spaltlappen-Transplantates. Arch OhrenNasen-Kehlkopfheilkd 161:422–428
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tange, R.A., Troost, D. & Limburg, M. Progressive fatal dementia (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) in a patient who received homograft tissue for tympanic membrane closure. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 247, 199–201 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00178983
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00178983