Which neutropenic patients are sick? Or sick-est?
During the heme/onc module, Dr Reisman will dissect the following paper:
Let’s discuss pre-conference: Is this applicable to your practice? What are the limitations? Will this change what you do tomorrow?
The views expressed on this blog are the author's own and do not reflect the views of their employer. Please read our full disclaimer here. Any references to clinical cases refer to patients treated at a virtual hospital, Janus General Hospital.
I think overall I don’t have any big issues with the study. It’s obviously limited by its retrospective design. The main problem for me would be its relevance. I have never felt comfortable discharging a patient with neutropenic fever so unless you’re considering sending a pt home, the focus of this article doesn’t really impact what you are going to do in the ED. Would like to hear if anyone has discharged neutropenic fever pts that meet low risk criteria.
definitely interesting to think about those findings. crp/cxr and cbc are all easy to order and going to be done anyways during the work up. seems like we admit them all regardless.