Prevention of Gram-Positive Infections in Patients Treated with High-Dose Chemotherapy and Bone Marrow Transplantation: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Vancomycin

Between January 1986 and June 1988, 155 patients (73 children and 82 adults), who were candidates for bone marrow transplantation, were included in a randomized controlled trial (75 patients in vancomycin group and 80 patients in the group without vancomycin) to evaluate the efficiency of a short course of vancomycin (10 mg/kg IV every 6 hours, day -5 to + 1) in decreasing the incidence of Gram-positive infections during aplasia after high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation. There was no statistical difference in the occurrence of documented septicemia, documented coccus Gram-positive infections, or fever of unknown origins during aplasia in the 2 groups. Thus, short prophylactic treatment with vancomycin proved inefficient in reducing morbidity due to infection after high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation.