Kimura’s Disease in a Chronic Hemodialysis Patient

Abstract

Eosinophilia is not an uncommon finding in chronic dialysis patients. It is usually benign in nature although definite pathogenesis is unknown. We have encountered a young uremic Chinese adult who developed Kimura’s disease after being on maintenance hemodialysis for about 3 years. Asymptomatic eosinophilia had been noted for 1 year and 8 months prior to the development of progressively enlarged neck masses, which leads to the diagnosis of Kimura’s disease. In contrast to most cases, eosinophilia was first noticed before the neck masses appeared. There is often a close correlation between Kimura’s disease and glomerular disease, where renal involvement is considered as a systemic manifestation. However, we do not have strong evidence to support this relationship between terminal renal failure and Kimura’s disease in this patient. To our knowledge, our patient is the first reported case of Kimura’s disease occurring in chronic hemodialysis patients. Eosinophilia persisted for nearly 2 years before the neck mass developed and recurred after the excision. Besides, our patient also demonstrated a chronic and recurrent course typical of Kimura’s disease.