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Published on: March 14, 2017

Methodological Quality and Content Analysis of Clinical Practice Guidelines for Fever Management in Children With

Elspeth Bittle1,2, Tea Reljic3, Ambuj Kumar3

  • 1Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

Pediatric Blood & Cancer
|August 4, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Clinical practice guidelines for managing acute fever in children with sickle cell disease (SCD) are lacking. This review found no dedicated guidelines, highlighting a critical gap in evidence-based care for pediatric SCD patients.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Hematology
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Evidence-Based Medicine

Background:

  • Infection and sepsis are leading causes of mortality in children under five with sickle cell disease (SCD).
  • Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are crucial for standardizing evidence-based care.
  • The availability and quality of CPGs for managing acute fever in pediatric SCD patients were previously unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically review and appraise the quantity and quality of existing CPGs for acute fever management in children with SCD.
  • To identify gaps in current evidence-based guidelines for pediatric SCD fever management.

Main Methods:

  • A systematic review of CPGs published in the last 10 years was conducted.
  • Searches included PubMed and manual searches of citations, professional society websites, and expert inquiries.
  • CPGs were appraised using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II) instrument.

Main Results:

  • Out of 839 articles identified, only 8 CPGs met the inclusion criteria.
  • None of the included CPGs were specifically dedicated to managing acute fever in pediatric SCD.
  • The mean overall quality score for the reviewed CPGs was 46%, indicating suboptimal quality.

Conclusions:

  • There is a significant lack of rigorously developed, evidence-based CPGs for managing acute fever in children with SCD.
  • This study underscores the urgent need for the development of a high-quality CPG tailored to pediatric SCD fever management.

Keywords:
feverguidelinepediatricssickle cell disease

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