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Treatment of gram‐positive septicemia in cancer patients
Author(s) -
Pizzo P. A.,
Ladisch S.,
Robichaud K.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19800101)45:1<206::aid-cncr2820450133>3.0.co;2-p
Subject(s) - medicine , antibiotics , sepsis , gram , cancer , regimen , broad spectrum , gastroenterology , surgery , microbiology and biotechnology , bacteria , combinatorial chemistry , biology , genetics , chemistry
Seventy‐eight pediatric cancer patients were treated for gram‐positive bacterial septicemia during a 10‐year period (1968 – 1977). Sixty‐one (78%) of the patients were granulocytopenic (PMNs <500/mm 3 ) at the onset of the septic episode. All the patients whose granulocytopenia resolved (PMNs > 500/mm 3 ) within one week of therapy recovered without sequelae. However, 7 of 15 patients (47%) who remained granulocytopenic for more than 7 days and who were treated with a single antibiotic developed a second sepsis with a gram‐negative organism. In contrast, second infections were not observed in 24 patients with PMNs < 500/mm 3 for more than 7 days who were treated with broad spectrum antibiotics (p < 0.002), suggesting that a broad‐spectrum antibiotic regimen may be preferable when a cancer patient has prolonged granulocytopenia.