Febrile infants aged ≤60 days: evaluation and management in the emergency department

Lauren Palladino; Christopher Woll; Paul L Aronson

Febrile infants aged ≤60 days: evaluation and management in the emergency department

Pediatr Emerg Med Pract. 2024 Feb;21(2):1-28. Epub 2024 Feb 1.

Authors

Lauren Palladino¹, Christopher Woll², Paul L Aronson³

Affiliations

¹ Fellow, Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Division of Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.
² Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics, Albany Medical Center, Albany, NY; Medical Director, Double H Ranch, Lake Luzerne, NY.
³ Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, Section of Pediatric Emergency Medicine; Deputy Director, Pediatric Residency Program, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.

PMID: 38266065

Abstract

Emergency clinicians frequently provide care to febrile infants aged ≤60 days in the emergency department. In these very young infants, fever may be the only presenting sign of invasive bacterial infection and, if untreated, invasive bacterial infection can lead to severe outcomes. This issue reviews newer risk-stratification tools and the 2021 American Academy of Pediatrics clinical practice guideline to provide recommendations for the evaluation and management of febrile young infants. The most recent literature assessing the risk of concomitant invasive bacterial infection with urinary tract infections or positive viral testing is also reviewed.

MeSH terms

Bacterial Infections* / complications
Bacterial Infections* / diagnosis
Bacterial Infections* / therapy
Child
Emergency Service, Hospital*
Fever* / diagnosis
Fever* / etiology
Fever* / therapy
Humans
Infant