Norfloxacin for Prevention of Bacterial Infections during Severe Granulocytopenia after Bone Marrow Transplantation

Abstract

48 patients treated with bone marrow transplantation (BMT) received the quinolone norfloxacin (NOR) in a total decontamination (TD-NOR, n=36) or selective decontamination (SD-NOR, n=12) regimen and were compared with a historical control group of 48 BMT patients receiving oral non-absorbable antibiotics (TD-NAA, n=31 and SD-NAA, n=17). 17/36 patients (47%) of group TD-NOR and 16/31 patients (52%) of group TD-NAA remained free of febrile episodes and infections. 4/12 patients (33%) of group SD-NOR and only 1/17 patients (6%) of group SD-NAA remained free of fever and infections. The use of norfloxacin in selective decontamination resulted in a statistically significant lower incidence of fever days than in patients receiving SD-NAA (p<0.001). These data suggest that norfloxacin may replace non-absorbable antibiotics in total and in selective decontamination regimens used for infection prophylaxis in BMT recipients.