Occurrence of bacteremia in hematologic patients.

In the present study we reviewed eighty-six episodes of bacteremia occurred in 60 neutropenic patients and thirty-one episodes occurred in 30 non-neutropenic patients. Twenty-four out of 60 neutropenic patients suffered from multiple episodes of bacteremia, while only one out of 30 non-neutropenic patients presented multiple episodes. In neutropenic patients, 29 episodes of bacteremia were polymicrobial, whereas only one non-neutropenic patient had polymicrobial bacteremia. Intravascular catheters were the most common source of bacteremia (23.2%) in neutropenic patients, as compared with infections of the genito-urinary tract (45.1%) among non-neutropenic patients. In both groups, aerobic gram-positive cocci were the microorganisms most frequently isolated (71.6%). Anaerobic microorganisms showed an higher incidence in polymicrobial episodes than in monomicrobial episodes x 2 = 5.39 p = 0.02 OR = 2.97 95% CI (1.2-7.7).