Conservative management of pneumatosis intestinalis and pneumoperitoneum following bone-marrow transplantation.

Pneumatosis intestinalis (PI), with or without pneumoperitoneum (PP), may complicate allogenic bone-marrow transplantation (BMT). The aim of our study was to establish the incidence and outcome of this complication following BMT in children. A departmental database was used to identify children who underwent BMT in the 4-year period up to December 1999. The medical records of children who developed PI with or without PP were obtained for further study. All patients were managed without recourse to surgery. Conservative management included 7 days of intravenous antibiotics and 10 days of intestinal rest supported by parenteral nutrition. In the study period, 138 BMTs were carried out. Six children (4%) with a total of 7 episodes of PI/PP were identified, 1 boy and 5 girls with a median age of 8.5 years (range 0.8-11). Neutropenia was noted in 3 children at the time of presentation. Other risk factors identified included alternative BMT donors (5/6), steroid therapy (6/7), and graft-versus-host disease (5/6). Organisms were isolated from stool cultures sent at the time of diagnosis in 3 out of 7 instances. Diarrhoea was the predominant presenting symptom. All patients recovered from the acute episode, but 5 died at a mean of 12 months from the development of PI/PP (range 6-17 months). This mortality of 83% compares with a mortality of 33% (43 of 132) for the remainder of children who underwent BMT during the study period. Thus, while initial recovery can be anticipated, the medium-term mortality in this group of children is high.