Nocardia infection in a renal transplant recipient

Opportunistic infection occurs in up to 20% renal transplant patients and is associated with a high mortality. We report a 47-year-old diabetic female with 1-year-old deceased donor renal allograft on triple drug immunosuppression. She developed cytomegalovirus retinitis at ten months post-transplant followed by nocardiasis manifested by hemiparesis with comatose state due to lumbar epidural and multiple brain abscesses, in spite of immediately curtailing immunosuppression. She recovered with linezolid and cotrimoxazole and was discharged two weeks later. She is maintaining stable graft function with serum creatinine 1.4 mg/dL on cyclosporin 2.5 mg/kg/day and prednisone10 mg/day with maintenance therapy for nocardiasis.