The purpose of this study is to explore the suspected infections occurring after paediatric intestinal transplant.
Method: A literature review of PubMed, Medline and CINAHL database is done to retrieve peer reviewed journals published in English language during last 5 years’ time between 2016-2021. The key search term used in database search include ‘Infection AND Pediatr* AND Intestin* Transplant’. The database search retrieved 87 articles. After screening for the abstract and title, and removing the redundant and irrelevant studies, the search finally retrieved 5 articles as per the eligibility criteria.
Results: Paediatric intestinal transplant has unique challenges. This population involves mean age of 7.2 +/- 6.5 years during the transplant and may be naïve immunologically [2]. These recipients are at higher risk of incepting infections from Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV). The review identified suspected early infections that occur within 90 days of intestinal transplant (such as fungemia ‘59%’ and bacteraemia ‘60%’, CMV ‘7%’ and adenovirus infection ‘80%’), and late infections that occur after 90 days of intestinal transplant (such as EBV Induced Infection ‘73%’, respiratory illness ‘34%’, Diarrhoea from Rotavirus or Giardia Lamblia etc) [1]. The study also revealed anatomy, pathogenesis and risk factors of intestinal infections.
Conclusion:
Paediatric patients are at increased risk of opportunistic infections after intestinal transplant leading to high rate of morbidity, mortality and state of prolonged illness.
References
Soltys, K.A., Reyes, J.D., & Green, M. (2016). Risks and Epidemiology of Infections After Intestinal Transplantation. In: Ljungman, P., Snydman, D., Boeckh, M. (eds) Transplant Infections. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28797-3_15
Celik, N., Mazariegos, G. V., Soltys, K., Rudolph, J. A., Shi, Y., Bond, G. J., Sindhi, R., & Ganoza, A. (2018). Pediatric Intestinal Transplantation. Gastroenterology clinics of North America, 47(2), 355–368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gtc.2018.01.007
