Neutropenic Fever (infection of the blood) is often seen as a complication associated with chemotherapy administered for many different types of cancer including breast cancer, lung cancer, and lymphoma to name a few.
All cases of Neutropenic Fever are treated as urgent as patients can become very ill very quickly and in some cases this can lead to death. Generally patients will be started on wide spectrum antibiotics until the results of blood and microbiology tests have confirmed the exact nature of the infection. Once the cause has been identified medication can be targeted more efficiently.
A classic symptom of Neutropenic Fever is the development of a fever, commonly in conjunction with signs of infection. The fever is the body’s immune system working extra hard to fight off the infection.
Patients with Neutropenic Fever will show an abnormally low white blood cell count; if the patient is undergoing chemotherapy the drugs used in the treatment suppress the ability of the bone marrow to produce white blood cells. White blood cells are what the body uses to fight infection on a daily basis.
Treatment of Neutropenic Fever with a combination of antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin and co-amoxilav is generally simple and straightforward, with patients making a good recovery within a few days. However patients with the more serious form of Neutropenic Fever known as Neutropenic Sepsis (blood poisoning), have a very high level of toxins in the blood and an extremely low white blood cell count, as a result these patients, tend to be a lot sicker, and will need a different type of antibiotic treatment, commonly they are treated with carbpenems.
Visit Neutropenicfever.org for more infomation.
Here, Dr. Tony Talebi discusses "What is Neutropenic Fever?" with Dr. Cynthia Rivera, assistant professor of infectious disease at the University of Miami.
