Neurological complications after autologous stem cell transplantation.
BACKGROUND
Autologous bone marrow (BMT) or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) are increasingly used to treat hematological malignancies and solid tumors. The reported incidence of neurological complications varies greatly among the different centers, ranging from 11 to 39%.


METHODS
In order to gain insight into the real incidence of early neurological complications (first 6 weeks) after autologous transplantation, we analyzed a series of 254 patients who underwent BMT/PBSCT for hematological malignancies (212 cases) or solid tumors (42 cases).


RESULTS
Seven patients died during the early posttransplant period (incidence: 2.4%), and one of these deaths was related to a neurological complication. Eight patients developed neurologic complications (incidence: 2.8%). None of the patients developed cerebral hemorrhage during the early posttransplant period, despite a rather restrictive platelet transfusion support. Two out of 13 patients diagnosed AML and 3 out of 36 patients diagnosed Hodgkin's disease developed early neurological complications.


CONCLUSIONS
The neurological morbidity related to autologous transplantation was very low in our series of patients as compared to that reported in previous studies. This difference could be explained, at least in part, by a more restrictive definition of early neurologic complications.
Guerrero
A
A
Servicio de Neurología, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Salamanca, España, Spain.
Pérez-Simón
J A
JA
Gutierrez
N
N
Caballero
D
D
Ortin
F
F
Gomez-Sanchez
J C
JC
Cacho
J
J
San Miguel
J F
JF
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy; D002648:Child; D003244:Consciousness Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D002542:Intracranial Embolism and Thrombosis / Q000209:etiology; D019586:Intracranial Hypertension / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012640:Seizures / Q000209:etiology; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D019172:Transplantation Conditioning / Q000009:adverse effects; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous