[Acute drug-induced agranulocytosis: comparison between openward treatment and antimicrobial decontamination in a plastic isolation bed system (retrospective study of 30 cases) (author's transl)].

Thirty patients with severe drug-induced agranulocytosis were admitted to the Ulm University Hospital between January, 1968 and October, 1976. All of 13 already infected patients treated with antimicrobial decontamination in a plastic isolation bed system survived. But nine of 17 patients treated in the open ward died. The cases were not randomised and there was a difference in age between the two groups, but nevertheless the results suggest that antimicrobial decontamination and isolation is superior to treatment in an open ward.