Infections Complicating Acute Leukemia A Retrospective Study of 23 Cases

Abstract

It is generally considered that infection is a fatal complication and recently has increased in acute leukemia. In this paper, we studied relationships between peripheral neutrophil counts (N), antibiotics and infections. According to decreasing of N, incidence of febrile episodes increased overtly. In 78% of febrile episodes, N revealed less than 500/cmm. Forty five of 73 etiologic agents (61.6%) and 6 of 7 bacteremia (85.7%) were gramnegative rods. Infections were mostly detected in the upper-respiratory tract and were observed more frequently in remission induction period than in terminal period. The most effective method was the combination therapy of cephalospolin and aminoglucoside. On the basis of fluctuations of N during treatment of antibiotics, it seemed an increment of N played the leading part in infection.