Cryptic but Deadly: A Serious Killer in Patients with Advanced Liver Disease that Should Not Be Missed

Abstract

Cryptococcal peritonitis is an under-recognized disease that is an important cause of mortality in end-stage liver disease. We report a 43-year old male with decompensated cirrhosis secondary to refractory autoimmune hepatitis on immunosuppression with hepatocellular carcinoma who developed cryptococcal peritonitis. The patient subsequently developed ischemic bowel and multisystem organ failure secondary to abdominal compartment syndrome, leading to rapid deterioration and death. Frequently, these patients experience delays in diagnosis and treatment, which leads to a rapid and high mortality. This case report synthesizes data regarding the optimal approach for screening and managing patients with cryptococcal peritonitis and proposes a pathogenic mechanism of mortality with implications for improved treatment in the future.

Fatal Invasive Cryptococcal Infection in an HIV-Negative Elderly Patient with Decompensated Hepatic Cirrhosis

“…Some of these patients have localized peritonitis, but others further develop fungemia and/or meningitis [4, 6]. Although precise mechanism remains unknown, recent reports on cirrhotic patients complicated with invasive cryptococcal infection are accumulating [8, 9, 21, 23–25].…”