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Transfusion of harvested stem cells is an increasingly common practice. In 1991 the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) promulgated the standard that all bone marrow and peripheral stem cell harvests be cultured for microbial contaminants. Whether this time-consuming and costly activity benefits patients remains in doubt, as evidenced by this study of one institution's experience.
Over a 39-month period 1,660 peripheral stem cell and 274 bone marrow harvests from 417 and 188 patients, respectively, were cultured. Only 11 of the stem cell and none of the bone marrow harvests were culture positive. Of the 12 isolates obtained, 8 were fungi. In 8 of 12 positive cultures, growth was reported as rare or a single colony. In spite of the cul…