Legionnaires' disease associated with acute renal failure: a report of two cases and review of the literature

Abstract

Renal involvement is a well described complication of Legionnaires' disease and is often manifested as mild, transient azotemia, hematuria, proteinuria, pyuria or cylinduria. Acute renal failure complicating Legionnaires' disease has also been described, and some patients have required hemodialysis. Renal morphology has only been described in a few cases. We report two cases of Legionnaires' disease who developed acute renal failure. The serotype of the Legionella pneumophilia isolated from one of the patients had never been isolated from humans before. This patient expired and at autopsy the kidney revealed acute tubular necrosis, but there was no evidence for interstitial or glomerular disease. Renal morphology in six previously reported cases revealed acute tubulointerstitial nephritis in three cases and acute tubular necrosis in the other three. We conclude that acute renal failure may accompany severe Legionnaires' disease, and the development of the renal failure is not related to hemodynamic factors, while nephrotoxic antibiotics may be a contributing factor.