ABSTRACT

The risk of infection among allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (aHSCT) recipients is determined by patient age, underlying disease, the complications that occurred during preceding treatment regimens, the selected transplantation modality, and the severity of graft-versus-host disease. Immunological reconstitution after hematopoietic recovery has an impact on type of post-transplant infectious complications, and infection-related mortality is significantly higher post-engraftment than during the short post-transplant neutropenia. As different pathogenetic and epidemiological backgrounds of infections occur following aHSCT, three consecutive time periods post-transplant are separately described: the early post-transplant period (pre-engraftment, comprising 3 weeks), the intermediate post-transplant period (3 weeks to three months) and the late post-transplant period (later than day + 90).