Intravenous foscarnet for the treatment of severe cytomegalovirus infection in allograft recipients.

Foscarnet, trisodium phosphonoformate, was administered intravenously to 6 immunosuppressed patients with life-threatening cytomegalovirus infection. Three of the patients were recipients of a kidney and 3 of a bone-marrow transplant. Favourable clinical responses were seen in 5 of the patients, 2 of whom were still in good health 5 and 8 months after the infection had cleared up. No toxic effect of the drug was detected. The results seem to justify further trials, in which foscarnet should be introduced at an earlier stage of the disease.