Prophylaxis and treatment of infection of the immunocompromised host by granulocyte transfusions.

Granulocyte transfusions are expensive and involve healthy donors in a procedure which is time-consuming, uncomfortable and not without risk. It is therefore important to consider carefully the circumstances which justify their use. The indiscriminate transfusion of inadequate quantities of granulocytes from random donors into sensitized recipients should be discouraged. Severely neutropenic patients with bacterial infection persisting in the face of maximum antibiotic therapy are clearly appropriate recipients of granulocyte transfusion therapy. Well-designed programmes of prophylactic granulocyte transfusion can reduce the acquisition of bacterial infection in granulocytopenic patients. However, there are very few clinical situations in which their use is justified. A wider use of granulocytes must await better techniques of granulocyte procurement and donor selection.