Relation between Age, Gender, Number of Blood Products Received and Diagnosis with Engraftment and Length of Hospital Stay in Patients Undergoing Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation

Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation may be one of the best treatment options for some patients with hematological malignancies. The process of stem cell homing in the bone marrow and the production and proliferation of denovo cell populations is called engraftment and could be considered as one of the key factors in the success of stem cell transplantation. The aim of this study was to investigate the main success factors in stem cell transplantation.

In this retrospective research, patients undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation (between 2009 and 2019) with lymphoma and multiple myeloma were included and the factors affecting engraftment time and the hospital length of stay were studied using patients' records.

In patients with Hodgkin's diagnosis, myeloid engraftment took longer than that in patients with multiple myeloma (P= 0.06). One-unit increase in platelet transfusion led to late myeloid engraftment (P= 0.09). Patients diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma also had a later platelet engraftment than patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma (P= 0.008) and increase in unit of platelets transfused caused later platelet engraftment (P= 0.05). Significant risk factors in multivariate analysis were entered into multiple models, among which only the number of packed cells transfusion was associated with duration of hospitalization (P<0.0001).

Myeloid and platelet engraftment are associated with numbers of transfusions and transfusion support should be provided for patients at the correct rate to avoid hospital length of stay.