Prognostic Factors and Intensive Care Outcome in Post-Transplant Phase of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

Introduction To identify new clinical and biologic parameters associated with short-term survival in allogeneic or autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) during their post-transplant period. Materials and methods 40 patients who were admitted to the ICU in our center during their post-transplant period were evaluated retrospectively between Jan 2014 – Jun 2021. Baseline patient characteristics before the transplant, reasons for ICU admissions, laboratory and clinical findings, supportive treatment in ICU and short-term survival were analyzed. Results We found 8.8% ICU admission rate in all patient group (n = 450). Mortality rate of the patients who were admitted to ICU was 75%. Invasive mechanic ventilation, need for vasopressor, heart rate was significantly different between survivor and non-survivor group (p = 0.001, p = 0.001, p = 0.004). Elevated INR was associated with poor survival on ICU (p = 0.033). APACHE II score was an independent predictor of ICU mortality (p = 0.045). Conclusion Despite the recent advances in transplant conditioning protocols, prophylaxis strategies and improvements of management in ICU, overall survival for HSCT patients in ICU is still poor. In this study INR level was described as a new prognostic factor in ICU for first time in the literature.