Oral GVHD post-cardiac xenograft valve replacement: a case report.

BACKGROUND

Graft versus host disease (GVHD) is an autoimmune disease that affects the oral cavity as well as other parts of the body. Oral GVHD occurs in 45-83% of cases, and chronic GVHD observed in 30-50% of cases usually manifests as an oral presentation.

CASE PRESENTATION

In this case report, a 13 years-old girl was referred to the periodontics clinic from the pediatric dentistry clinics for proper diagnosis and management of the oral presentations observed after receiving a prosthetic valve replacement 2 years ago. In this study, the xenograft type used was mainly investigated, as similar soft tissue grafts are used in the oral cavity with no GVHD oral manifestations being observed. This brings about an interesting discussion of the use of xenografts in different areas of the human body, but with different presentations.

CONCLUSIONS

Thus, future investigations on early diagnostic tools, including saliva or blood examinations, are needed to create preventive methods or create sensitive testing for early diagnosis in such patients.