[Intravenous immunoglobulin in the treatment of infections in children with acute leukemias].

Infections are a common cause of complications in the course of applying highly aggressive combined cytotoxic therapy in children suffering from acute leukemias (ALL and ANLL). The effect of adjuvant therapy of intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) was investigated in cases of infections of children with ALL and ANLL (24 with IVIG and 24 without this therapy) according to the system of matched pairs. The polyvalent functionally intact monomeric i.v. immunoglobulin "Endobulin" Immuno, 100 mg/kg was applied in infections--febrile episodes combined, if possible, with an aimed antibiotic therapy. It was established that children with the intravenous immunoglobulin therapy had had statistically significantly less febrile episodes (p < 0.01), as well as less febrile days (p < 0.05). Although the acquired results speak in favor of this therapeutic possibility when applying this supportive therapy which is getting more and more important, authors made a conclusion that the final estimate of the value of this therapy remains open and requires further investigations.