Ogilvie Syndrome in a Refractory Germ Cell Tumor Treated with Vinblastine, Ifosfamide and Cisplatin Regimen

Abstract

Ogilvie syndrome or intestinal pseudo-obstruction is a clinical syndrome characterized by autonomic imbalance affecting peristalsis of colon leading to obstructive signs and symptoms. The etiologies commonly implicated are drugs affecting the cholinergic system, narcotics, electrolyte imbalance, severe sepsis, cancer, major surgery, and renal and cardiac failure. Ogilvie syndrome secondary to chemotherapy is a very rare phenomenon with very few reports in the literature. Cisplatin-induced neuropathy has been reported to occur when the cumulative dose exceeds 360 mg/m2. It manifests predominantly as peripheral sensory neuropathy with autonomic neuropathy occurring very rarely in a subset of patients. All the reported cases to date who presented with autonomic dysfunction secondary to cisplatin also had peripheral sensory neuropathy. Herein, we report a case of metastatic nonseminomatous germ cell tumor treated with cisplatin based regimen, who presented with severe intestinal pseudo-obstruction when the cumulative dose exceeded 400 mg/m2 without any other manifestation of neuropathy. To our knowledge this is the first such case reported in the literature.