Protective isolation and antimicrobial decontamination in patients with high susceptibility to infection. A prospective cooperative study of gnotobiotic care in acute leukaemia patients. III: The quality of isolation and decontamination.

In a cooperative study, the quality of protective isolation and of antibiotic decontamination of the digestive tract was studied in patients with acute leukaemia by (bio)-typing of Enterobacteriaceae species, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus isolated from oral washings and faecal samples. These samples were collected before and during treatment of 82 patients who were either isolated and decontaminated for which latter purposes a combination of neomycin, polymyxin, bacitracin and nystatin was used (group A); isolated without decontamination (Group B) or treated on the ward without decontamination (Group C). The results indicated that protective isolation had only been completely successful during the entire (remission induction) treatment period in one of the 32 patients in Group B. In Group A patients, who underwent antibiotic decontamination in addition, successful isolation was achieved in 57% of 28 patients. Successful antibiotic decontamination of the digestive tract for the entire treatment period as far as all potentially pathogenic species are concerned, was realized in 4 (14%) of the 28 patients of Group A. Bacteriologically confirmed infections occurred in 50% of Group A patients, in 59% Group B patients and in 64% of Group C patients. It is concluded that the quality of isolation had in general been insufficient but that it was improved by oral nonabsorbable antibiotics and, furthermore, that the antibiotic decontamination procedure also requires improvement.