Organ donation and Rendu-Osler-Weber syndrome

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), or Rendu-Osler-Weber syndrome, is an autosomal dominant vascular disorder characterized by telangiectases and arteriovenous malformations in vital organs, including lungs, liver, and brain (1). Neurologic complications develop in 4% to 28% of cases and include migraine headache, stroke, seizure, intracerebral and subarachnoid hemorrhages, and brain abscess (1, 2). A brain abscess can be expected to occur in 1% of patients with HHT and the mortality rate is 40% (2, 3). To our knowledge, there are no reports describing the use of organs for transplantation from brain-dead donors (BDD) diagnosed with HHT and brain abscess. We recently evaluated a patient with HHT who meet clinical criteria for brain death secondary to a polymicrobial brain abscess. The two kidneys were transplanted in two patients. There was no donor-derived infection in the recipients.