Transplant related septicaemia in patients undergoing autologous bone marrow transplantation for lymphoma and acute leukaemia.

ABSTRACT

193 consecutive adult patients undergoing autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) for lymphomas and acute leukaemias were studied retrospectively to investigate the pattern of peri-transplant septicaemia. 80% of the early peri-transplant septicaemia occurred between day 4 and day 10 after AMBT. Gram-positive septicaemia was significantly more frequent than gram-negative septicaemia. The immediate mortality rate due to septicaemia during the early post-transplant period (< 72 hours from the development of first febrile episode), whether gram-negative or gram-positive was low (1%). Most infective deaths occurred in patients undergoing ABMT for primary refractory or resistant relapsed lymphomas and as a result of pulmonary complications presumed but not always confirmed to be of infective origin.