Visual disturbance or central symptom like hallucination in patients treated voriconazole: report of six cases

Visual disturbance or central symptom like hallucination is well known to be one of the common drug adverse events in response to voriconazole (VRCZ). We observed 123 patients treated VRCZ from April 2012 to January 2016. Two of these cases experienced visual disturbance and 4 of these cases experienced central symptom. Six patients appeared visual disturbance or central symptom within 1 week after administration of VRCZ (visual disturbance; 3 days [2-42 days], central symptom; 6 days [3-9 days]) and disappeared visual disturbance or central symptom at an early date after discontinuation of administration or decreasing dose of VRCZ. The trough concentration of VRCZ in patients who experienced central symptom was similar with that in-patients who did not experience adverse events by VRCZ (case 3; 3.79μg/ mL, case 4; 1.28μg/mL vs 3.73μg/mL [0.09-13.27 μg/mL]). On the other hand, the trough concentration of VRCZ in patients who experienced visual disturbance was higher than that in patients who did not experience adverse events by VRCZ (case 5; 7.49μg/mL, case 6; 4.45μg/ mL vs 3.73μg/mL [0.09-13.27μg/mL]). In conclusion, we thought that the risk factor of visual disturbance was the increasing concentration of VRCZ. Therefore, we should monitor the onset of visual disturbance or central symptom in patients treated with VRCZ, especially central symptom that the concentration is unconcerned.