Successful Treatment of Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura with Intracranial Hemorrhaging and Duodenal Bleeding Following SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination

Abstract

Several vaccines have been developed for coronavirus disease 2019 - caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) - in record time. A few cases of immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination have been reported. We herein report a 90-year-old man who received the Pfizer-BioNTech SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (BNT162b2) and developed severe thrombocytopenia with intracranial hemorrhaging and duodenal bleeding, consistent with vaccine-related ITP. He was successfully treated with intravenous immunoglobulin, prednisolone, and eltrombopag and discharged without cytopenia. Vaccine-related ITP should be suspected in patients presenting with abnormal bleeding or purpura after vaccination.