Treatment of perianal infection following bone marrow transplantation

Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is often associated with profound neutropenia. Allogeneic transplant recipients also have defects in both humoral and cellular immunity and thus are subject to increased risk of serious, often life-threatening, infection even beyond the period of granulocyte recovery. The current study was undertaken to evaluate patients who required operative intervention for perianal sepsis following BMT.

The bone marrow transplant database at a single institution was used to identify all patients diagnosed with perianal infections after autologous or allogeneic BMT. Charts were reviewed in a retrospective manner.

Over a ten-year period ending in November 1993, 963 BMT were performed at the City of Hope National Medical Center. Twenty-four patients were diagnosed with perianal infections following their transplants. Fifteen patients did not have purulent collections requiring drainage and were treated with antibiotics and supportive measures alone. Nine patients (37.5 percent) required surgical intervention between 10 and 380 days following transplantation. At the time of surgical intervention, seven patients had purulent collections and two patients had acute and chronic inflammation, tissue necrosis, and fibrosis. Of the two patients with an absolute neutrophil count less than 1,000, a purulent collection was found in one of the patients. Cultures taken from perianal abscesses were almost all polymicrobial, and the most common organisms were Escherichia coli, Bacteroides, Enterococcus, and Klebsiella. For those patients undergoing surgical intervention, mean time to complete wound closure by secondary intention was 37.6 days; five patients healed in less than 15 days, two patients healed at 93 and 114 days, and two patients had persistent, open wounds at time of death, which was unrelated to their perianal disease. Five patients were receiving systemic steroids at time of surgical intervention; this did not appear to affect time to wound healing.

Perianal infections are a rare complication of BMT. Majority of these infections are polymicrobial, and organisms isolated are similar to those seen in the perianal infections of nonimmunosuppressed patients. Despite steroid use, granulocytopenia does not exclude the possible presence of purulent collections, and clinical examination should guide the decision for surgical drainage. In general, perianal wound healing is not prolonged in BMT patients.