Analysis of factors associated with hematopoietic stem-cell retransplantation: a case-control study

OBJECTIVE: to analyze the factors associated with the failure of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) in patients undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Retransplantation (HSCR). METHOD: this study implemented a quantitative approach and was a case-control type which addressed patients undergoing HSCR. To do so, a paired sample of two controls was used for each case (2:1). The case group consisted of the medical records of all patients who underwent HSCR (28) and the control group (56) of those who underwent only one transplant. Three variables guided the pairing: gender, diagnosis and type of transplant. RESULTS: a total of 24 (85.71%) patients in the case group were re-transplanted due to disease relapse and four (14.29%) due to graft failure. There was a statistical difference in the analysis between patients who did not use ursodeoxycholic acid, opioid analgesics and immunosuppressants. The need for HSCR among those who used these medications inappropriately was 16.12, 12.79 and 4.5 times more likely, respectively, than those who used them correctly. CONCLUSION: there was a difference regarding the reasons which led to the retransplantation and the analyzed subjects, and this study concluded that the predictive reason for retransplantation in the studied sample was disease relapse.