Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes significant mortality in patients submitted to SCT. Despite the use of ribavirin aerosols (RA), mortality rates are still between 30 and 40% in many centers. The objective of this study was to analyze the clinical course and outcome of 59 patients who developed RSV infections after SCT in a single institution. In this retrospective analysis, the diagnosis of RSV infection was confirmed in 59 patients submitted to HSCT. RA was administrated during 12 hours at a dose of 5g diluted in 200 mL of distillated water, for 5 days. Fifteen patients presented with upper respiratory tract (URT) infection and 44 patients presented with lower respiratory tract (LRT) infection. In the group of patients who received RA (n=50), 40 had URT infections and 10 had LRT infections. In patients who did not receive RA, 3 had URT infections and 6 had LRT infections. Twenty patients died (33.8%) with the main cause of death of 13 patients being RSV infection (all these patients required mechanical ventilation). Nine patients died before RA therapy became standard treatment for RSV (before 1992). The overall survival of patients treated with RA was 66%. However, the overall survival was lower in patients who had LRT infections (37.5%) compared with those who had URT infections (67.5% - p=0.007). In the multivariate analysis, only the use of RA affected overall survival (p=0.001).
Respiratory syncytial virus; allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
