Saving the life of a 19-year-old man with a disease never recorded in Vietnam

On the afternoon of June 27, Bach Mai Hospital held a discharge ceremony for patient Nguyen Quoc Trinh (19 years old, Thanh Hoa) after nearly 7 months of treatment. Notably, this is a particularly rare case recorded for the first time in medical literature in our country and is the 10th case in the world to be successfully treated and discharged from the hospital.

Accordingly, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Trinh suffered from Pemphigus paraneoplastic disease (extramedullary hematopoietic tumor) and had a large retroperitoneal tumor measuring approximately 136x65x131mm. In December 2023, patient Trinh was taken by relatives to the Department of Dermatology, Bach Mai Hospital in a state of severe oral mucosal erosion, accompanied by skin lesions with manifestations of papules, purple-red patches, blisters, and vesicles scattered all over the body...

Skin lesions rapidly progressed into large skin erosions, covering more than 70% of the body surface. The painful ulcerative lesions of the oral mucosa caused the patient to have a poor appetite and quickly became exhausted. In addition to the severe skin and mucosal manifestations, the patient had a large retroperitoneal tumor that pushed on many surrounding organs.

Bach Mai Hospital organized a discharge ceremony for patient Nguyen Quoc Trinh.

Patient Trinh was ordered to undergo skin biopsies several times, but the results of each biopsy were different. It was not until January 2024 that the patient was diagnosed with Pempigus vulgaris and his physical condition deteriorated.

"Pemphigus is a rare disease, not yet found in Vietnamese medical literature. In the world, the rate of people with the disease is 1/1 million people," shared Dr. Tran Thi Quyen, Department of Dermatology. At the same time, she said that in the early stages of treatment, the patient's lesions responded very poorly to conventional immunosuppressive therapies. The skin lesions continued to spread to more than 80% of the body surface area, the patient lost 10kg within 1 month and weighed only more than 30kg.

Patient Nguyen Quoc Trinh was saved by doctors at Bach Mai Hospital after nearly 7 months of treatment.

However, after nearly 200 days with 2 treatment sessions, patient Trinh was miraculously saved and returned to life. According to Mr. Dao Xuan Co, Director of Bach Mai Hospital, finding the disease Pemphigus spongiformis is difficult, but treating the disease is even more of a challenge, requiring the coordination of many specialties with leading experts.

“The successful treatment of patient Trinh is thanks to the strength of a special-class, complete general hospital like Bach Mai,” Mr. Dao Xuan Co emphasized and sent his thanks to Hanoi Social Insurance.

“With the treatment cost for more than 6 months, up to nearly 800 million VND, fully paid by the insurance agency, it shows the humanity and great value of paying social insurance and health insurance. Patient Nguyen Quoc Trinh is a poor household, and his father died at a young age. His family is extremely poor. If there was no insurance to pay, it is unknown where the patient's family would have managed to pay for the huge treatment cost,” said the Director of Bach Mai Hospital.

KHANH NGUYEN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/cuu-song-nam-thanh-nien-19-tuoi-mac-can-benh-chua-tung-ghi-nhan-o-viet-nam-post746683.html