The Effects of the Intestinal Microflora of Selectively Decontaminated Patients on the Severity of Acute Graft-Versus-Host Disease of the Gut

Infection prevention in adult granulocytopenic patients is performed in our institute by selective elimination of the aerobic potentially pathogenic micro-organisms from the digestive tract. This procedure has been called selective antimicrobial modulation (SAM) and the efficacy has been proven in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study in patients undergoing chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukemia (Guiot et al., 1983). Also in allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT), SAM has shown to be effective (Van der Meer et al., 1984).