Post-infectious acute renal failure due to calciphylaxis - When processes go the wrong way round

Calciphylaxis is a rare life threatening disorder of small- and medium-sized vessel calcification that leads to cutaneous necrosis. While its pathogenesis is uncertain, nearly all cases have been described in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on dialysis or following renal transplantation which is why the lesion has also been referred to as calcific uremic arteriolopathy. We describe a patient with alcoholic cirrhosis and normal renal function who developed calciphylaxis. Due to infected cutaneous lesions, he developed an acute post-infectious glomerulonephritis with extra capillary proliferation.