[Acute pancreatitis caused by varicella-zoster virus after liver transplantation]

Twenty-six days after liver transplantation for primary biliary cirrhosis, a 52 year-old patient was rehospitalized for viral infection. The clinical features were fatigue, anorexia and vomiting. On physical examination, vesicular skin lesions involving the left 8 th intercostal space were suggestive of herpes-zoster infection. The following day the patient was extremely tired and dyspnoeic. The abdomen was distended with moderate abdominal epigastric pain. The clinical picture worsened rapidly and the patient died a few hours later. Autopsy revealed acute haemorrhagic necrosis of the pancreas due to herpes-zoster virus.