[Maintenance hemodialysis in IgD- lambda -type multiple myeloma associated with severe renal failure]

A 52-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of oliguric renal failure. The patient was well until four weeks earlier, when he developed nausea and anorexia. The urea nitrogen was 179 mg/dl, creatinine 29.2 mg/dl, uric acid 19.0 mg/dl and potassium 8.6 mEq/1. Hemodialysis was started immediately after admission. Bone marrow aspiration showed atypical plasma cell infiltration consistent with multiple myeloma. The immunoelectrophoresis revealed urinary lambda -type Bence Jones protein and serum IgD- lambda -type M protein. The findings of renal biopsy study were consistent with myeloma kidney. On the fourth hospital day, administration of prednisolone 40 mg and melphalan 2 mg was started. The patient also underwent double filtration plasma-pheresis (DFPP). Serum IgD level was decreased from 950 to 113 mg/dl. After a course of chemotherapy, however, he developed severe leukopenia and was complicated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pneumonia. This complication was successfully treated with imipenem/cilastation and vancomycin combined with granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF). The patient was discharged and returned to work on maintenance hemodialysis. Fifteen months after the presentation, he manifested progressive peripheral nerve disturbances. Three months later, the patient died--not from renal failure, but from ventricular arrhythmia. The application of maintenance dialysis therapy to myelomatosis has until now been questioned. The present case, however, suggests that aggressive treatment consisting of chronic dialysis therapy as well as chemotherapy and plasma exchange should be administered even in patients with established renal failure.