Processing of peripheral blood progenitor cell components in improved clean areas does not reduce the rate of microbial contamination

Abstract

Microbial contamination of PBPC components could not be reduced by installation of improved clean area conditions.

Influence of harvest bacterial contamination on autologous peripheral blood progenitor cells post-transplant

“…Bacterial contamination is a well-known risk in PBPC transplants, especially autologous, 6,12,13 because these require more ex-vivo manipulation, and this complication seems very difficult to avoid even though the strictest standards of hygiene were adopted. 21 In our cases, bacterial PBPC contamination was more frequently caused by normal skin flora, as is the case in most of the previous reports. 1,6,7,14 As patients receiving APBPCTs have been treated with high-dose therapy, the temptation to discard contaminated PBPCs is reasonable; 12 but difficulty in obtaining sufficient PBPCs in subsequent aphereses, together with the fact that almost half of bacterial contaminations occur at the time of thawing, and results of these cultures are not available at the time of infusion, make this decision very difficult.…”

Sterility testing of hematopoietic progenitor cell products: a single‐institution series of culture‐positive rates and successful infusion of culture‐positive products

“…Patient recovered. Cassens 28 7 * Nifong 29 1 Positive blood culture Day 1 after infusion. Hirji 8 14…”

Microbial contamination of hematopoietic progenitor cell products: clinical outcome

“…Microbial contamination of HPC products has been described in frequencies varying from close to 1% up to high contamination rates. [1][2][3][4] Harvesting, ex vivo processing, cryopreservation and the pre-infusion thawing process [5][6][7] can be responsible for contamination, owing to inadequate decontamination of skin at the needle puncture site, indwelling catheter site for peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) collection or owing to contamination by laboratory personnel or equipment. Commonly documented species are part of the normal flora of the skin.…”