Infectious mononucleosis: a review of 107 cases

Key words: Infectious mononucleosis, Haematologic complications, Steroid therapy

Childhood infectious mononucleosis is a benign and self-limited disease. Complications are rare but not unremarkable: 3 out of 107 patients experienced haematological complications (1 autoimmune haemolytic anaemia and 2 autoimmune thrombocytopenia), 2 of which required specific treatment (blood transfusion and IvIg respectively). Steroid treatment was reserved to patients with respiratory obstruction or prolonged fever with poor general condition and symptomatic effect was observed in all of the treated cases within 24 hours. The risk/benefit ratio of steroid treatment was justified by the brief period of therapy (4 days) and the dose (1 mg/kg of prednisone or 0.1 mg/kg of betamethasone).