Contamination of bone marrow transplants from peripheral blood

doi:10.1136/bmj.309.6959.958a

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M Farrington,
I Matthews,
R Marcus,
M A Scott,
E Caffrey,
C J Hunt

Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ East Anglian Tissue Bank, Blood Transfusion Service, Cambridge CB2 2PT.

EDITOR, - We agree with Tessa L Holyoake and Ian M Franklin that transplants of peripheral blood stem cells may transform medical oncology, but their infective risks were not mentioned.1 Harvested bone marrow may contain bacteria,*RF 2-5* and grafts of peripheral blood stem cells may do too. In two cases recently, contaminated grafts were infused uneventfully when the patients received prophylaxis with antibiotics.

Peripheral blood stem cells were harvested with full aseptic precautions being taken. Duplicate samples were taken before and after cryopreservation and cultured directly and by broth enrichment for conventional and psychrophilic bacteria. Isolation of the same organism from …