Current approaches to management of infections in bone marrow transplants

Infections continue to be common complications of bone marrow transplantation, but recent advances have improved their outcome. Oral chemoprophylaxis with the fluoroquinolones has reduced gram-negative infections during periods of granulocytopenia, while new triazole drugs show promise for improving antifungal prophylaxis. Similarly, recombinant hematopoietic growth factors may reduce infections by shortening the period of post-transplant granulocytopenia. The efficacy of double beta-lactam antibiotic therapy or monotherapy with imipenem has obviated the need to use aminoglycosides in the empiric treatment of febrile patients receiving cyclosporine or other nephrotoxic agents. Treatment of post-transplant interstitial pneumonia associated with cytomegalovirus (CMV) remains problematic, but recent results using the combination of ganciclovir plus intravenous immune globulin have been favorable. In CMV-seronegative patients, CMV infections and pneumonia can be prevented or modified by using CMV-seronegative blood products and intravenous immune globulin. Intravenous immune globulin also has the additional benefits of modifying graft versus host disease and preventing late bacterial infections after marrow engraftment. In CMV-seropositive patients, prophylactic ganciclovir may prevent CMV reactivation and pneumonia and is the subject of an ongoing controlled clinical trial.