[Successful treatment with foscarnet for disseminated varicella-zoster infection after reduced intensity stem cell transplantation in a case of relapsed refractory central nervous system lymphoma].

Visceral disseminated varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection occurred with acute graft-versus-host disease in a 33-year-old Japanese male with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who had undergone allogeneic stem cell transplantation from an HLA-identical sibling after reduced intensity conditioning chemotherapy. Although ganciclovir and acyclovir treatment was effective temporarily, the number of VZV-DNA copies in the blood remained at a high level, and the hepatitis was prolonged. The patient was treated with foscarnet, which led to improvement of the VZV viremia and the hepatic dysfunction. Foscarnet therapy should be considered for acyclovir-resistant VZV infection in the setting of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.