[Results of 7 years of prophylactic immunotherapy using a bacterial vaccine in chronic bronchopneumopathies].

Within the framework of a clinical study intended to evaluate the prophylactic efficacy of polymicrobial vaccines, 90 patients with chronic bronchopulmonary disease were treated for four successive years with an oral bacterial vaccine. The following parameters were considered: number of episodes of acute bronchitis per years, hospitalizations for respiratory events, number of housebound days due to flare-ups, number of days on antibiotics. Results were favorable: in the 4th year of treatment, acute episodes were reduced by 46%, hospitalizations by 50%, housebound days by 46%, and days on antibiotics by 52%. These results appear to be closely related to the careful selection of patients (exclusion of subjects in initial or advanced stages of disease) and to scrupulous compliance with treatment protocol. In fact, out of the 162 subjects entering the trial, only 90 followed it regularly.