CURRENT STRATEGIES AND CONCEPTS FOR PREVENTINGIN FECTIONS AFTER SOLID ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION

September 1, 2010

M. Oltean 1
1 The Transplant Institute, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract


The posttransplant immunosuppressive medication renders transplant recipients susceptible to bacterial, viral or fungal infections. A significant proportion of these infectious complications can be successfully prevented through careful donor and recipient screening, pretransplant infection control and immunizations. Moreover, an array of measures in the posttransplant period such as antiviral prophylaxis as well as simple yet meaningful changes in the lifestyle can further contribute to decreasing the frequency of infections. This not exhaustive review outlines these main measures and highlights the current prevention strategies, based on the available data, consensus and protocols.