Faryad Hussain, Beenish Babar, Husnul Hayat, Zoha Zafar, Agha Shabbir Ali, Humayun Iqbal Khan.
Frequency of Pneumonia in Children with Febrile Neutropenia Presenting in a Tertiary Care Hospital.
Pak Paed J Jan ;42(4):266-70.

Background: Worldwide, pneumonia profoundly impacts all populations. Pneumonia causes more mortality and morbidity than any other infectious complication in cancer patients. Pneumonia is the most common problem in cancer patients. Estimates of the incidence of pneumonia as 13-31% who received chemotherapy for cancer. The incidence has been found to be higher (up to 80%) in hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients. Overall mortality rate of pneumonia is 25%-80% in leukemia. While the case fatality rate in hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients is as high as 90%. Objective: To determine the frequency of pneumonia in children with febrile neutropenia presenting in a tertiary care hospital. Setting: This cross sectional study was carried out in the oncology section of pediatric department of Lahore General Hospital from September 2016 to march 2017. Methodology: Total of 121 patients admitted in the pediatric department of the hospital fulfilling the inclusion criteria were enrolled in the study. After taking informed written consent from parents, detailed history and clinical examination was done. A proforma was used to collect information about patient demographics and medical history. All patients with chemotherapy induced febrile neutropenia having single oral temperature reading of 38.00C (1010F) and an absolute neutrophil count less than 500 cells/mm3 or 1000F) was diagnosed as pneumonia and recorded on proforma attached. Certificate of approval from ethical committee was taken. Results: Out of 121, cases 76.86% (n=93) were between 1 month to 7 years of age whereas 23.14% (n=28) were between 8-14 years of age, mean + sd was calculated as 5.51 + 3.46 years, 46.28% (n=56) were male and 53.72% (n=65) were females, frequency of pneumonia in children with febrile neutropenia presenting in a tertiary care hospital was recorded in 12.40% (n=15) whereas 87.60% (n=106) had no findings suggestive of this morbidity. Conclusion: We concluded that the frequency of pneumonia is considerable in children with febrile neutropenia presenting in a tertiary care hospital.

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