Setting and Study Population
This is a single-center retrospective review of pediatric cancer patients presenting with febrile neutropenia (FN) and culture confirmed bacteremia at Rady Children’s Hospital between 2012 and 2018. The study was approved by the institutional review board. Patients > 1 year old and < 21 years old with documented history of malignancy who presented to the emergency department with FN and bacteremia were included in the study. Patients were identified using International Classification of Disease codes for febrile neutropenia and bacteremia. All identified electronic medical records underwent manual review and patients were excluded if they did not have a documented malignancy, if they developed FN during hospital admission for another indication, if they were treated at an outside facility prior to presentation or if they received analgesic/antipyretic therapy with any NSAID medications in conjunction with acetaminophen. Study definitions used for fever, neutropenia and bacteremia are detailed in Table 1.