title: [Empirical antifungal therapy in patients with febrile neutropenia].
abstract: The empiric use of antimicrobial agents in febrile neutropenia is a generally accepted practice. Antifungal empiric therapy is used in neutropenic patients with persistent or recurrent fever after 4 - 6 days of treatment onset with broad-spectrum antibiotics. This therapy aims at treating any non-diagnosed invasive fungal infections (IFIs), preventing the development of IFIs and eventually reducing the mortality associated with these infections. After a review of empiric antifungal therapy, this article poses the following question: Which is the best empiric antifungal therapy option for neutropenic patients? There is no doubt the answer to this question is not simple and, even more important, with a better understanding of the progression of patients with febrile neutropenia and IFI risk groups, the imperative question is: Should any patient with persistent fever receive empiric antifungal therapy?
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Clinica Medica, Universidad Federal de Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nucci
mesh_terms: D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005334:Fever / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D009181:Mycoses / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009503:Neutropenia / Q000150:complications*; D018570:Risk Assessment
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents