WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Dr. Belayet Hossain*, Selimuzzaman, W. A. Khan, Nilufar Akter Chowdhury, Fazlur Rahman, A. Wahab, Sajeda Sultana and Mehedi Hasan

ABSTRACT

Background: Post-chemotherapy neutropenia in leukaemia patients is a most common complication since it makes these patients vulnerable to infections. So infections are the major cause of therapy associated morbidity and mortality in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia during chemotherapy. Methods: This retrospective study conducted on post induction therapy acute lymphoblastic leukaemia children and analyzes the medical records of 237 ALL children. Results: Among all the 237 cases, 134(56.6%) patients acquired infections during induction therapy, Amongst the 134 infected patients, 63(47%) had clinically documented infection, 54(40%) had fever of unknown origin and rest of the 17(13%) had microbiologically documented infection. Almost 90% patients developed neutropenia with or without infection. Most of the infections occurred during the period of 8th to 17th day of induction. Ten percent patients died of Infection & bleeding-associated complications. Conclusions: Our study suggests that infection is the most frequently encountered chemotherapy-related complication in children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia which leads to temporary withheld of scheduled chemotherapy. Gram negative infection is the more common than Gram positive infection. Recommendation: Prophylactic measures including proper isolation as well barrier nursing & maintenance of patient`s personal hygiene, appropriate management of infection using antimicrobials are very crucial to avoid as well as shorten the period of chemotherapy withheld and there by ensure better treatment outcome & reduce the chance of relapse of the disease in children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.