Fatal donor-derived Kaposi sarcoma following liver transplantation

Human herpesvirus-8 (HHV8) is a recognised precursor for a number of neoplastic and non-neoplastic processes. Immunosuppressed recipients of both solid organ and haematopoietic stem cell transplants are at risk of life-threatening lytic reactivations of HHV8-infected B-lymphocytes, primary infections after receiving grafts from HHV8-seropositive donors and more rarely by the direct transplantation of malignant Kaposi sarcoma cells seeded within graft tissue. We describe the case of an HHV8-seronegative patient with confirmed, post-orthotopic liver transplant transmission of HHV8 from a seropositive donor with quantitative evidence of viraemia and subsequent development of disseminated visceral and cutaneous Kaposi sarcoma with a rapidly fatal outcome.