Characteristics of oncology patients with fever and invasive bacterial infections diagnosed.
Acta Paediatr
; 2024 Aug 02.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39091245
ABSTRACT
AIM:
To describe the characteristics of febrile oncology patients seen in the Paediatric Emergency Department and microbiological characteristics of the invasive bacterial infections (IBIs) diagnosed.METHODS:
We conducted a prospective observational study of febrile oncology patients seen between 2016 and 2022. We divided haematologic cancers by the aggressiveness of the chemotherapy received at the time.RESULTS:
We included 418 episodes (272 haematologic cancers, 146 solid tumours). The median duration of fever was 2 h (interquartile range 1-3) and 97.6% of patients were well-appearing on arrival. We diagnosed 61 IBIs (14.6%), including six episodes of bacterial sepsis. One other episode was coded as sepsis without microbiological confirmation, yielding seven episodes overall (1.7%). Rates of IBI and sepsis were higher among patients with high-risk haematologic cancers than those with low-risk haematologic cancers or solid tumours (22.9%, 5.4% and 10.3%, p < 0.01; 3.4%, 0% and 0.7%, p = 0.06, respectively). Leading causes were S. epidermidis (42.6%) and E. coli (14.7%). Gram-positive bacteria caused 67.2% of non-septic IBIs and 50% of septic episodes.CONCLUSION:
Most febrile oncology patients are well-appearing and present with a very short history of fever. Prevalence of IBI and sepsis and the main disease-causing bacteria differ by cancer type and the presence of sepsis.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Acta Paediatr
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
España