Preventing infections with intravenous immunoglobulins in bone marrow transplantation

Patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation are at risk for life-threatening infections for various reasons. After a period of neutropenia the allogenic transplant necessitates continuous immunosuppression for the prevention of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). The observation of declining immunoglobulin levels early led to attempts of passive transfer of humoral immunity mainly to prevent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and reactivation. While in autologous transplantation no substantial benefit could be established, it seems likely that high risk groups of allogenic transplanted patients will benefit in terms of a reduced incidence and severity of CMV disease and GvHD.