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Background: Monotherapy is recommended as the first choice for initial empirical therapy of febrile neutropenia, but local epidemiological and antibiotic susceptibility data are now considered pivotal to design a correct management strategy., Aim: To evaluate the proportion of Gram-negative rods isolated in bloodstream infections in children with cancer resistant to antibiotics recommended for this indication., Materials & Methods: The in vitro susceptibility to ceftazidime, piperacillin-tazobactam, meropenem and amikacin of Gram-negatives isolated in bacteremic episodes in children with cancer followed at the Istituto "Giannina Gaslini", Genoa, Italy in the period of 2001-2013 was retrospectively analyzed using the definitions recommended by EUCAST in 2014. Data were analyzed for any single drug and to the combination of amikacin with each β-lactam. The combination was considered effective in absence of concomitant resistance to both drugs, and not evaluated by means of in vitro analysis of antibiotic combinations (e.g., checkerboard)., Results: A total of 263 strains were evaluated: 27% were resistant to piperacillin-tazobactam, 23% to ceftazidime, 12% to meropenem and 13% to amikacin. Concomitant resistance to β-lactam and amikacin was detected in 6% of strains for piperacillin-tazobactam, 5% for ceftazidime and 5% for meropenem. During the study period there was a nonsignificant increase in the proportions of strains resistant to β-lactams indicated for monotherapy, and also increase in the resistance to combined therapies., Conclusion: in an era of increasing resistance to antibiotics guideline-recommended monotherapy could be not appropriate for initial empirical therapy of febrile neutropenia. Strict local survey on etiology and antibiotic susceptibility is mandatory for a correct management of this complication in cancer patients.

Data on epidemiology of severe infectious complications, ie, bacteremia or invasive fungal disease (IFD), in children with acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) after allogeneic hemopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are scarce. In a retrospective, single-center study, we analyzed the risk (hazard ratio [HR]) and the rate (episodes/1000 patients days at risk) of bacteremias and IFD in children receiving allogeneic HSCT, according to the type of donor (matched related [MRD] or alternative [AD]) and presence and grade of aGVHD. From 2000 to 2009, 198 children receiving 217 allogeneic HSCT developed 134 severe infectious episodes (103 bacteremias and 31 IFD). The type of donor (AD versus MRD) was the most important risk factor for the severe infections (P = .0052). In separate multivariable analysis for bacteremia and IFD, children receiving an AD HSCT had increased HR and rate of bacteremia compared with those receiving a MRD transplantation (P = .0171 and P = .0001, respectively), whereas the HR and the rate of IFD were significantly influenced by the grade of aGVHD (P = .0002 and P < .0001, respectively). Finally, infectious episodes occurred late after HSCT, especially in presence of severe aGVHD, and bacteremias were 3 to 6 times more frequent than IFD. These data may be important to design management strategies of infections in pediatric allogeneic HSCT., (Copyright © 2014 American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The incidence of bacteremia following hemopoietic SCT (HSCT) changes over time from the procedure. The first 30 days have the highest incidence, both in autologous and allogeneic HSCT recipients. In the following periods, bacteremia is a frequent complication in allogeneic HSCT, especially from alternative donors. Gram-positive cocci represent the most frequent cause of single-agent bacteremia. Knowledge of epidemiology (incidence and etiology) of bacteremias following HSCT is pivotal for planning management strategies (prevention, diagnosis and therapy) that must be distinct in the different post-transplant period.

We performed a retrospective single center study to define the epidemiology of bacteremias or invasive mycoses in pediatric allogeneic hematopoietic SCT (HSCT) from matched related donors (MRD) or alternative donors (AD). During 119 213 days of follow-up, 156 infections were observed: 130 bacteremias (27 in MRD-HSCT and 103 in AD-HSCT recipients) and 26 invasive mycoses (8 in MRD-HSCT and 18 in AD-HSCT recipients). Overall, the risk of bacteremia was fivefold that of invasive mycosis (P<0.001). AD-HSCT recipients had a higher percentage of infections (89 vs 27%; P<0.001), a higher rate/100 days of immunosuppression (infection rate (IR): 0.21 vs 0.06; P<0.001) and a higher proportion of repeated infections (44 vs 9%; P=0.001). In AD-HSCT, the relative risk of bacteremia was 2.87 in the pre-engraftment period, 5.84 in the early post-engraftment period and 6.46 in the late post-engraftment period (P<0.001) compared to MRD-HSCT. Only after 1 year did the epidemiology become similar. The epidemiology of invasive mycoses did not differ significantly between the two types of transplant.