Management and outcomes of care of fever in early infancy.
BACKGROUND
Fever in infants challenges clinicians in distinguishing between serious conditions, such as bacteremia or bacterial meningitis, and minor illnesses. To date, the practice patterns of office-based pediatricians in treating febrile infants and the clinical outcomes resulting from their care have not been systematically studied.


OBJECTIVE
To characterize the management and clinical outcomes of fever in infants, develop a clinical prediction model for the identification of bacteremia/bacterial meningitis, and compare the accuracy of various strategies.


METHODS
Prospective cohort study.


METHODS
Offices of 573 practitioners from the Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS) network of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 44 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.


METHODS
Consecutive sample of 3066 infants aged 3 months or younger with temperatures of at least 38 degrees C seen by PROS practitioners from February 28, 1995, through April 25, 1998.


METHODS
Management strategies, illness frequency, and rates and accuracy of treating bacteremia/bacterial meningitis.


RESULTS
The PROS clinicians hospitalized 36% of the infants, performed laboratory testing in 75%, and initially treated 57% with antibiotics. The majority (64%) were treated exclusively outside of the hospital. Bacteremia was detected in 1.8% of infants (2.4% of those tested) and bacterial meningitis in 0.5%. Well-appearing infants aged 25 days or older with fever of less than 38.6 degrees C had a rate of 0.4% for bacteremia/bacterial meningitis. Frequency of other illnesses included urinary tract infection, 5.4%; otitis media, 12.2%; upper respiratory tract infection, 25.6%; bronchiolitis, 7.8%; and gastroenteritis, 7.2%. Practitioners followed current guidelines in 42% of episodes. However, in the initial visit, they treated 61 of the 63 cases of bacteremia/bacterial meningitis with antibiotics. Neither current guidelines nor the model developed in this study performed with greater accuracy than observed practitioner management.


CONCLUSIONS
Pediatric clinicians in the United States use individualized clinical judgment in treating febrile infants. In this study, relying on current clinical guidelines would not have improved care but would have resulted in more hospitalizations and laboratory testing.
Pantell
Robert H
RH
Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco 94143-0503, USA. pantell@itsa.ucsf.edu
Newman
Thomas B
TB
Bernzweig
Jane
J
Bergman
David A
DA
Takayama
John I
JI
Segal
Mark
M
Finch
Stacia A
SA
Wasserman
Richard C
RC
D016470:Bacteremia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019091:Critical Pathways; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D019468:Disease Management; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D016920:Meningitis, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010372:Pediatrics; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States