[Infectious complications in neutropenic patients with malignant hemopathies. A prospective study of 279 cases of neutropenia].

We prospectively evaluated the infective complications in 279 neutropenic episodes which developed during the treatment of 79 patients with malignant hemopathies over a 35 month period. In 150 episodes (53.73%) infections were detected: one infection in 121 episodes and two in 29 episodes. Overall 179 infections were detected. 75 of them (41.89%) were considered as possible, 57 (31.84%) were microbiologically documented with bacteremia/fungemia 24 (13.40%) were clinically documented, and 23 (12.84%) were microbiologically documented without bacteremia/fungemia. The portal of entry could not be identified in 121 infections (67.59%), 26 (14.76%) originated in the skin and soft tissues, 14 (7.82%) in the lung, 7 (3.91%) in the oropharynx, 5 (2.79%) in a catheter, and 6 (3.33%) were of miscellaneous origin. Of 80 microbiologically documented infections, 39 (48.75%) were due to gram-negative bacteria, 23 (28.75%) to gram-positive bacteria, 12 (15%) to fungi, and 6 (7.5%) to polymicrobial flora. The overall mortality rate was 4.3%. It was 8% for episodes complicated by infection and 0 in episodes of neutropenia without infection.