Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation - Blog Science Connections

Infectious Complications of Autologous Bone
Marrow Transplantation
James L Kirk, Jr., Ronald A. Greenfield, R. Bradley Slease,
and Robert B. Epstein
Infectious complications are a major concern following autologous bone
marrow transplantation (ABMT). Numerous intrinsic and extrinsic factors
combine to place patients at risk for a variety of infectious complications.
Despite the increased use of ABMT in the treatment of refractory malignancies,
the scope of infectious complications remains poorly characterized. As
a consequence, patients receiving ABMT have been treated in accordance
with principles derived from the care of patients undergoing allogeneic bone
marrow transplantation, in whom infectious complications have been more
carefully studied (1). Such an analogy may not be warranted. Patients
receiving ABMT tend to have shorter periods of neutropenia, do not require
prophylactic posttransplantation immunosuppressive therapy, and do not
develop graft-versus-host disease. These differences may result in a different
spectrum of infectious complications.
Our study reviews the courses of 35 patients with a variety of underlying
malignancies who underwent ABMT. We reviewed the methods of infection
prophylaxis employed and recorded the nature of infectious complications
encountered. We then compared our findings to the established patterns of
infection seen in patients who receive allogeneic bone marrow transplanta-
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