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Evaluation of a protective environment in the management of granulocytopenic patients: A comparative study
Author(s) -
RibasMundo Manuel,
Granena Albert,
Rozman Ciril
Publication year - 1981
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(19810715)48:2<419::aid-cncr2820480234>3.0.co;2-5
Subject(s) - medicine , incidence (geometry) , antibiotics , isolation (microbiology) , gastroenterology , surgery , microbiology and biotechnology , physics , optics , biology
Fever, clinical infection, bacteriologically documented infection, and death from infection were evaluated in 95 consecutive uninfected patients with severe granulocytopenia (less than 0.5 × 10 9 /liter). Patients were randomly allocated to reverse isolation and prophylactic oral nonabsorbable antibiotics or to open ward care. The microbiologic surveillance of air samples and stool cultures showed reduction of pathogenic organisms in patients treated in protective environment units. There was a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of fever (80% vs. 39.6%; P < 0.001), clinical infections (55.3% vs. 25%; P < 0.01), bacteriologically documented infections (53.2% vs. 20.8%; P < 0.01), and deaths from infections (25.5% vs. 8.3%; P = 0.02) in patients treated in a protective environment as compared with patients treated on the open ward.