Role of gancyclovir and HAART administration in the treatment of a rare complication of HIV disease: Cytomegalovirus-associated Guillain-Barre syndrome

Peripheral nerve disorders are very common in patients with HIV infection, including inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathies, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome. Causes of these neuropathies are probably multiple, and often dictated by the stage of the underlying HIV disease. Acute demyelinating polyneuropathy is usually preceded by infections, generally sustained by cytomegalovirus or Campylobacter jejuni, and a co-infection with HIV may represent the initial etiopathogenetic event leading to the neurological disorder. An extraordinary case report of a cytomegalovirus-associated Guillain-Barre syndrome occurred in one of our patients with advanced HIV infection, who was cured by gancyclovir and HAART administration, and gives us the opportunity to briefly discuss the intriguing pathogenetic and clinical correlations among HIV disease, cytomegalovirus infection, this neurological syndrome, and its specific treatment.