A 16-year-old male undergoing chemotherapy for recurrent Hodgkin's disease.
During the course of this treatment, the patient showed signs of gastrointestinal bleeding (melena), accompanied by an intense elevation of transaminases and a significant change in blood coagulation tests (protombine activity).
The patient died a few days later due to acute liver failure with signs of encephalopathy and massive gastrointestinal bleeding.
Necropsy revealed diffuse liver damage accompanied by focal lesions in the lower third of the esophagus.
The histological study showed, in both organs, an inflammatory lesion of necrotizing character A, with cytopathic changes characteristic of herpetic infection, consisting of multinucleation images and presence of Cowdry bodies.
