Acute renal failure in a patient with Lemierre's syndrome

Lemierre's syndrome (postangimal sepsis) is an illness characterized by sep ticaemia caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum, occurring several days after a pharyngeal infection and complicated by jugular vein thrombophlebitis and metastatic abscesses mainly in the lung. Acure renal failure has rarely be en reported. This syndrome was frequent in the pre-antibiotic era with a mo rtality rate higher than 90 per cent, bur nowadays is a rare phenomenon. We describe a previously healthy 18 year-old man who presented with acute ren al failure in the context of a pharyngeal infection complicated in the next week by jugular vein thrombosis (diagnosed by scanning) and abscesses in t he lung. The early diagnosis and specific treatment cured the infection and completely restored renal function.