What are the complications of mono?
A frequent, but typically not severe, complication of mono can be a mild inflammation of the liver, or hepatitis. This form of hepatitis is rarely serious or demands treatment. The enlargement of the spleen that occurs with mono makes traumatic rupture of the spleen a probable complication. Swelling of the throat and tonsils can also lead to airway obstruction when severe. Fortunately, the much more severe complications of mono are very rare, and mono is very rarely fatal in healthy men and women. The rare severe complications contain destruction of red blood cells (hemolytic anemia) and inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart (pericarditis), the heart muscle itself (myocarditis), along with the brain (encephalitis).
Mono tends to be more aggressive in patients with abnormal immune systems, such as people with AIDS or those who are taking medications that suppress immune function. The EBV has been associated with some forms of cancers, most generally lymphomas. This occurs most regularly in individuals whose immune systems have been compromised as a result of disease or immune suppressive drugs. EBV infection has also been found to be associated with two kinds of cancer discovered in other cultures -- nasopharyngeal carcinoma (cancer of the pharynx and nose) in southern China and Burkitt's lymphoma of the jaw among youngsters in equatorial Africa. Further, numerous studies have also found that EBV infection is associated with the development of at least one subtype of Hodgkin's illness.
However, since the vast majority of people have been infected with EBV and never develop these types of tumors, EBV infection can not be the sole cause of these cancers. The overwhelming majority of individuals who have had mono recover fully without having any serious complications.
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