Journal of perinatal medicine
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Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common cause of congenital infection in humans. Some congenitally infected infants will develop sequelae later in life, especially sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and mental retardation. There is no generally accepted antiviral therapy for the treatment of symptomatic congenital CMV infections yet. ⋯ Our experience shows that it is not possible to give a fixed dosing regime for VGCV in neonates and that continuous adaptation of dose is necessary to achieve stable target levels of GCV and to keep the viral load in urine at undetectable level. At 18 months of age no hearing deterioration has occurred. While the current findings are encouraging, the limitations of a single case report with a relatively short follow-up emphasizes the need for further prospective randomized studies to evaluate pharmacokinetics, efficacy and safety of VGCV therapy in neonates with congenital CMV infection.