Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in patients who received a cadaveric dura mater graft--Spain, 1985-1992

In 1987, CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigated a case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in a 28-year-old woman in the United States; the patient had onset of CJD 19 months after an operation in which she received an imported, commercially prepared, cadaveric dura mater graft (LYODURA, processed by B. Braun Melsungen AG of the Federal Republic of Germany), (1,2). The report of this investigation alerted medical personnel and the public about a possible increased risk for CJD in recipients of these human tissue grafts. Recently, CDC was notified of four patients with CJD who had undergone dura mater repair with the aid of LYODURA. All four patients had neurosurgery at a regional hospital in Spain during April 1983-January 1984 (3,4). This report describes these four cases.