Supportive Care During Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: Prevention of Infections. A Report From Workshops on Supportive Care of the Paediatric Diseases Working Party (PDWP) of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT)
Marianne Ifversen, Roland Meisel, Petr Sedláček, Krzysztof Kałwak, Luisa Sisinni, Daphna Hutt, Thomas Lehrnbecher, Adriana Balduzzi, Tamara Diesch, Andrea Jarisch, Tayfun Güngör, Jerry Stein, Isaac Yaniv, Halvard Bönig, Michaela Kuhlen, Marc Ansari, Tiago Nava, Jean‐Hugues Dalle, Cristina Díaz de Heredia, Eugenia Trigoso, Ulrike Falkenberg, Mihaela Hartmann, Marco Deiana, Marta Canesi, Chiara Broggi, Alice Bertaina, Brenda Gibson, Gergely Kriván, Kim Vettenranta, Toni Matić, Jochen Buechner, Ánita Lawitschka, Christina Peters, Akif Yeşilipek, Koray Yalçın, Giovanna Lucchini, Shahrzad Bakhtiar, Dominik Turkiewicz, Riitta Niinimäki, Jacek Wachowiak, Simone Cesaro, Arnaud Dalissier, Selim Corbacioglu, André Willasch, Peter Bader
Abstract
Specific protocols define eligibility, conditioning, donor selection, graft composition and prophylaxis of graft vs. host disease for children and young adults undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). However, international protocols rarely, if ever, detail supportive care, including pharmaceutical infection prophylaxis, physical protection with face masks and cohort isolation or food restrictions. Supportive care suffers from a lack of scientific evidence and implementation of practices in the transplant centers brings extensive restrictions to the child's and family's daily life after HSCT. Therefore, the Board of the Pediatric Diseases Working Party (PDWP) of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) held a series of dedicated workshops since 2017 with the aim of initiating the production of a set of minimal recommendations. The present paper describes the consensus reached within the field of infection prophylaxis.