[Management of febrile neutropenia]

Febrile neutropenia is a severe complication of systemic chemotherapy and has a negative effect on morbidity, mortality and prognosis. It is usually caused by bacterial infection. Therefore patients at high risk should prophylactically be given GCSF and a fluoroquinolone. In most cases neutropenic fever requires hospitalization and immediate empiric antibiotic therapy following baseline diagnostics. If there is no improvement after 72-96 h, therapy should be modified and further tests initiated. In these cases fungal or viral infection should be considered.