Successful pulsed methylprednisolone and convalescent plasma treatment in a case of a renal transplant recipient with COVID-19 positive pneumonia: a case report

Abstract

Coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) is a deadly disease that was first seen in Wuhan, China, and primarily affects the respiratory system, but also has different systemic involvements. It has caused 89 million cases and 1.9 million deaths worldwide. COVID-19 positive renal transplant recipients have a higher mortality rate than COVID-19 patients in the normal population. There is no specific treatment and follow-up protocol for COVID-19 infection in transplant recipients. COVID-19 treatment and immunosuppressive therapy choices are controversial. Recently, pulse steroid therapies have been used in cases with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Convalescent plasma therapy is used limitedly in COVID-19 patients. Our 49-year-old male patient has been a recipient of a renal transplant from a cadaver for 6 years. We aimed to make an additional contribution by presenting our patient to the literature whose COVID-19 PCR-RT test performed in the emergency department due to the complaints of fever, shortness of breath, and cough for five days was positive and had moderate COVID-19 pneumonia in thorax tomography and had serious clinical and radiological improvement after pulsed methylprednisolone and convalescent plasma therapy in the early period.