All posts with tag: "fever"

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You are seeing a well-appearing 20 day old infant brought in for passing 4 stools instead of 6 today. The baby is full term, eating well, and there were no significant birth complications or maternal infections. Vital signs are rectal temperature 38.0 C, HR 140, RR 36, O2 sat 99% on room air. Physical exam is unremarkable except the right tympanic membrane is redder than the left. 

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You are seeing a 3 year old girl who was discharged from the hospital a week ago. At that time, she presented with fever, intermittent polyarthralgias, and an evanescent salmon pink rash. She was diagnosed with new onset systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, treated with ibuprofen, and initially did well. She now presents with unremitting fever and rash, bruising, petechiae, gum bleeding, hepatosplenomegaly, and lethargy. Labs reveal elevated transaminases, ferritin, LDH, and triglycerides, but a low ESR.

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(Click the link to comment and to vote - voting not working through email, sorry!) You are seeing a 2.5 month old baby who underwent a fever work-up yesterday and has been called back due to a positive blood culture growing gram positive cocci in clusters. The baby received the first set of immunizations at age 7 weeks. The baby is afebrile today and has been doing well and eating normally. The only treatments have been acetaminophen, last given 8 hours ago. [yop_poll id="122"]

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A 12yo girl presents to the ED in December with fever for 4 days, malaise, and pain in the right thigh gradually leading to her having difficulty walking. There is no history of trauma, although she did play a lot of basketball 1 week ago. She is alert and oriented. Physical exam of her leg is unremarkable except for diffuse pain. She has no rash nor joint swelling or erythema. Her vital signs are: temp 39.1, HR 165, RR 22, BP 85/44. Labs show an elevated WBC count with a bandemia, a BUN of 20 with a creatinine of 2.2, and mildly elevated transaminases with a bilirubin of 2.4. (Click the link to comment and to vote - voting not working through email, sorry!) [yop_poll id="9"]

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Note: controversies are not meant to have a “right” answer – they are to see how most people are practicing. Would love your comments also regarding your thought processes and the evidence behind your decisions. We can learn from each other!

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(Click the link to comment and to vote - voting not working through email, sorry!)Note: controversies are not meant to have a “right” answer – they are to see how most people are practicing. Would love your comments also regarding your thought processes and the evidence behind your decisions. We can learn from each other!

You are seeing a 30 day old full term infant whose parents thought the baby felt warm, checked the temperature with an infrared mid-forehead thermometer, and it read 100.4. They did not give any antipyretics and came straight to the ED. The rectal temperature in the ED is 99. Mother received prenatal care, there were no complications, and she was GBS negative. There are no ill contacts and the baby is well-appearing and feeding normally.

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Note: controversies are not meant to have a “right” answer – they are to see how most people are practicing. Would love your comments also regarding your thought processes and the evidence behind your decisions. We can learn from each other!

The new AAP Subcommittee on the Febrile Infant guidelines for managing febrile 8-60 day olds gives the option to perform an LP for febrile 22-28 day olds only if inflammatory markers, if obtained, are abnormal (Temp > 38.5, Procalcitonin > 0.5 ng/mL, CRP > 20 mg/dL, ANC > 4500-5200). This is an option even for the infant with a + UA. If an LP is not performed, they do recommend admission to the hospital and treatment with parenteral antibiotics. This is a change from prior practice, where concerns about masking meningitis obviated administration of parenteral antibiotics without performing the LP. What are your thoughts?

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(Click the link to comment and to vote - voting not working through email, sorry!) Note: controversies are not meant to have a “right” answer – they are to see how most people are practicing. Would love your comments also regarding your thought processes and the evidence behind your decisions. We can learn from each other! A 17mo old is brought in for rhinorrhea and mild cough. The patient is well-appearing, has no past medical history, is not on any medications, and is up to date on immunizations. Physical examination is normal. Vital signs are: temperature 35.8 rectal, heart rate 100, respiratory rate 24, blood pressure 85/42, pulse ox 100% on room air. The child is wearing a standard hospital gown and was brought in wearing appropriate clothing for the ambient mild outdoor weather. What would you do given the hypothermic rectal temperature? [poll id="54"]  

(Click the link to comment and to vote - voting not working through email, sorry!) Note: conundrums are not meant to have a “right” answer – they are to see how most people are practicing. Would love your comments also regarding your thought processes and the evidence behind your decisions. We can learn from each other! [poll id="48"]

(Click the link to comment and to vote - voting not working through email, sorry!) Note: conundrums are not meant to have a “right” answer – they are to see how most people are practicing. Would love your comments also regarding your thought processes and the evidence behind your decisions. We can learn from each other! Parents bring a 15mo old non-black uncircumcised well-appearing fully immunized male with 3 hours of fever and no other symptoms. His temperature is 39 C. You find no clear source for the fever on exam. It is wintertime and his siblings all have URIs but this patient has no cough or congestion. He has not had any prior UTIs. Do you catheterize him for urine to rule out UTI? [poll id="45"]

(Click the link to comment and to vote - voting not working through email, sorry!) Note: conundrums are not meant to have a “right” answer – they are to see how most people are practicing. Would love your comments also regarding your thought processes and the evidence behind your decisions. We can learn from each other! You are seeing a 15 month old brought in for simple febrile seizure lasting 2 minutes. The child is back to baseline and well appearing. The vital signs are temperature 40.4 C, HR 175, RR 30, BP 80/40. Exam reveals no source for infection. The child has no vaccinations at all by parent choice. [poll id="38"]  

(Click the link to comment and to vote - voting not working through email, sorry!) Note: conundrums are not meant to have a “right” answer – they are to see how most people are practicing. Would love your comments also regarding your thought processes and the evidence behind your decisions. We can learn from each other! You are seeing a 14 month old whose parents have chosen not to vaccinate him. He has a fever of 39.2 for one day and no other symptoms. He is circumcised. He appears well and has no known ill contacts. His physical examination is unremarkable. [poll id="32"]

(Click the link to comment and to vote - voting not working through email, sorry!) Note: conundrums are not meant to have a “right” answer – they are to see how most people are practicing. Would love your comments also regarding your thought processes and the evidence behind your decisions. We can learn from each other! [poll id="24"]

(Click the link to comment and to vote - voting not working through email, sorry!) Note: conundrums are not meant to have a “right” answer – they are to see how most people are practicing. Would love your comments also regarding your thought processes and the evidence behind your decisions. We can learn from each other! You are seeing a 10 week old infant with a 38 degree fever of 6 hours duration. He has mild rhinorrhea as does Dad. He is otherwise well and feeding well. Point of care RSV and influenza are negative, and urine shows no pyuria or bacteriuria. Review of the chart shows mom was GBS+ and was treated with intrapartum penicillin as recommended. Baby was observed for 2 days in the nursery but not treated with antibiotics. [poll id="21"]

A 2 month old was seen in the ED 36 hours ago with a temperature of 39.2. The CBC had a WBC of 11.2 with 70% lymphocytes and no bandemia. Urinalysis was negative. The lab calls you to report that 1 of 2 blood culture bottles is growing gram positive cocci in clusters. You call the patient and the parent reports that he is doing well, is now thought to be afebrile (tactile, parents have not checked the temperature in 24 hours), and is feeding well. What do you do? (Click the link to comment and to vote - voting not working through email, sorry!) [poll id="18"]

Do you do a CT and LP on all complex febrile seizure patients? [poll id="16"]

3 week old infant is brought in with fever of 38.5. The baby is well appearing and does not have any high risk factors in the birth history. You plan to get urine, blood, and CSF cultures and give empiric IV antibiotics. [poll id="8"]

You are seeing a 15 month old female with 36 hours of fever, current temp in ED 38.9 rectal (last antipyretic 6 hours prior), no other symptoms, well-appearing, no past medical history. Which would you do? [poll id="5"]

How much work-up do you do in the well-appearing, term, feeding, 29-60 day old infant with low-grade fever (38-38.5) without source? What about the 61-89 day old? [poll id="2"]

You're seeing a febrile well-appearing 29-60 day old with clear lab evidence of UTI and benign CBC. Do you do an LP? Do you admit and do you give parenteral antibiotics? What about for a 61-90 day old?

You've probably heard... AAP Subcommittee on Febrile Infants came out with new guidelines. The algorithms have been posted on PEMsource algorithms page, and the fever table updated to reflect them.

Also, the CDC came out with new guidelines regarding STI treatment. The summary wall poster can be found on the PEMsource On Shift tab. Some highlights: higher dose of ceftriaxone recommended for uncomplicated gonococcal infections, doxycycline only is 1st line for chlamydial infection (azithromycin no longer 1st line), and sex-specific dosing for trichomoniasis treatment. Also recommended IV regimen to treat PID is ceftriaxone + doxycycline + metronidazole; clindamycin & gentamicin now an alternate regimen.

Staying with the topic of urine... investigators at University of Pittsburgh have derived and validated a UTI risk calculator for patients aged 2-23 months. The calculator (UTICalc) is linked from the On Shift page of PEMsource under the heading Neonatal / Infant, and can be found at https://uticalc.pitt.edu/ The study by Shaikh et al was published online on April 16, 2018 at JAMA pediatrics here. Some highlights: derived on consecutive 2-23mo old febrile patients evaluated in ED for UTI, 542 with UTI and 1144 matched controls without UTI. Validated on a dataset of 380 patients, 30 with UTI. Investigators estimate sensitivity of UTICalc at 95-100% and state that use of the calculator results in approximately 10 patients tested for every 1 UTI found; UTICalc outperformed the current AAP algorithm in both of these outcomes. Users can also enter urinalysis dip, micro, and gram stain results to obtain post-test probabilities. Investigators suggest testing when pre-test probability is 2% or higher, and treating when post-test probability is 5% or higher. Further validation is warranted, but UTICalc may be useful in shared decision making with parents to give a ballpark risk estimate.

Nothing slows down the ED flow like waiting for the urine flow of an infant or toddler. Whether or not to screen for UTI with a clean catch urine vs obtain a catheterized specimen will be left for another discussion, but here are some of the latest techniques described for obtaining clean catch specimens. (For all, clean genital area thoroughly first) "CCU" procedure, first described by Herreros Fernandez et al, Arch Dis Child 2013;98:27, 80 infants aged < 30 days. Patient held under armpits with legs dangling in upright position. Suprapubic area gently tapped at 100 taps/minute x 30 seconds, followed by light circular massage of the lower back x 30 seconds. Repeat these maneuvers until urine collected. Successful in 86% of the infants with median time to collection 45 seconds. Labrosse et al, Pediatrics 2016;138(3):320160573 studied this CCU method with the addition of another person flexing the hips of female children, 126 infants < 6 months old. CCU method successful in providing urine sample within 300 seconds in 49%, median time 45 seconds. More successful in < 3 months old than 3-6 months old. "Quick-Wee" method, Kaufman et al, BMJ 2017;357:j1341, 354 infants aged 1-12mos With patient supine, suprapubic skin was rubbed with gauze soaked in cold saline. 31% voided within 5 minutes using Quick-Wee vs. 12% in the standard collection group. Finally, Naimer in Pediatr Emerg Care 2017;33:446 describes cutting a slit in an infant's diaper to push the urine collection bag through when obtaining a bag urine. This both helps to secure the bag and allows parents and nurses to see when the specimen has been obtained.

Explain to parents - colds are called colds because viruses thrive in cold temperatures, so fevers are the body's natural way to fight off the cold