Beneficial effect of intravenous lidocaine in cutaneous chronic graft-versus-host disease secondary to donor lymphocyte infusion.

We report two cases of refractory chronic graft-versus-host disease after donor lymphocyte infusions in which the skin lesions improved dramatically with the use of intravenous pulses of lidocaine. This form of therapy has been used successfully for the cutaneous involvement of scleroderma and may have vasodilator and anti-inflammatory effects.