Life-threatening Capillary Leak Syndrome in an Adult with Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia during Allogeneic Transplantation: a Case Report and Review of Literature

Although allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) offers the possibility of cure for hematological malignancies, various complications have been described.

Capillary leak syndrome (CLS) has been previously observed in HSCT patients. CLS is a rare disease characterized by recurrent episodes of generalized edema and severe hypotension along with hypoproteinemia.

A 27-year-old Chinese man, diagnosed with refractory acute myeloid leukemia, was treated with a haploidentical stem cell transplant combined with an unrelated umbilical cord blood unit. The patient developed fatal CLS during the 9th day of the conditioning therapy.

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Life-threatening Capillary Leak Syndrome in an Adult with Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia during Allogeneic Transplantation

CLS is one of the life-threatening early complications which usually occur during hematopoietic stem cell infusion or hematopoietic reconstruction process in addition to graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) and infection.

It is characterized by unexplained episodic capillary hyperpermeability, which causes the shift of fluid and protein from the intravascular space to the interstitial space. However, since the nonspecific signs and symptoms of CLS and the overlapping manifestations of early complications after transplantation, CLS tends to be easily confused with other early complications for clinicians.

In this case, we report an adult with refractory acute myeloid leukemia who developed fatal CLS during allo-HSCT with review of the literature.

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