A Critical Reappraisal of Gastrointestinal Complications of Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation

Gastrointestinal toxicity is a common early complication of allogeneic bone marrow transplants. Etiologies include mucosal damage from pretransplant conditioning, opportunistic infection, and graft-versus-host disease. Because the clinical, laboratory, radiographic, and histological findings of acute graft-versus-host disease are nonspecific, accurate diagnosis is difficult or impossible. We review the differential diagnosis of gastrointestinal complications of bone marrow transplants and implications for therapy.