febrile neutropenia
Feverish, defenseless blood
Febrile neutropenia is a medical emergency combining fever with dangerously low neutrophil counts—white blood cells that fight bacterial infections.
It occurs most often as a complication of chemotherapy, which suppresses bone marrow.
Patients become vulnerable to infections their bodies would normally fight off easily: She was hospitalized for febrile neutropenia after her second round of chemo.
- feverElevated body temperature
- chemotherapyAnti-cancer drug treatment
- infectionPathogen invasion causing illness
- blood culturesSamples testing for pathogens
- sepsisDangerous inflammatory infection response
chemo side effects · septic shock · immunocompromised · bone marrow · immune system · white blood cells · white cell count · antibiotics · oncology · hospitalization · temperature · chills · rigors · bloodstream · isolation · counts · nadir · cancer
- blood disordersanemia, sickle cell anemia, sickle cell disease, thalassemia, leukemia
- leukopeniasneutropenia
- Sepsissepsis, septicemia, blood poisoning, septic shock, bacteremia