Mortality Among Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Patients: Report From A Single Center In Southern Brazil

Introduction HSCT has grown in number in recent years. This treatment in children has its particularities and has been characterized in previous studies only on a limited basis. There are important causes of morbidity and mortality in this group of patients, including evolution of primary disease, graft failure, infectious diseases, and GVHD. The aim of this study was to report case series of TRM within 100 days after transplantation and associated factors.Methods Retrospective cohort. All children transplanted between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2017 were included and those who underwent the first HSCT in another center were excluded.Results Data from 292 children were analyzed. TRM in 100 days was 5.8%, being significantly higher in patients with umbilical cord blood as the cell source. Infectious complications were frequent in this sample (bacterial infections in 27%, viral infections in 75.3%, and fungal infections in 12%) and both the presence of fungal disease and more than one infection during the follow-up (viral and bacterial, viral and fungal or bacterial and fungal) had statistically significant association with the outcome.Conclusions The prognosis in allogeneic HSCT is influenced by the origin of the stem cells, the presence of acute GVHD and the occurrence of infectious diseases. Studies that evaluate pediatric individuals undergoing HSCT and analyze their mortality profile, can improve the management of these patients, possibly leading to a reduction in TRM.