The role of antimicrobial policies in neutropenic patients

Abstract

Antimicrobial policies in neutropenic patients are under continual review. The development of more potent broad spectrum antibiotics has allowed new approaches to empiric antibiotic therapy, including the use of a single agent rather than an antibiotic combination. The standard clinical approach in cancer patients with persistent, severe neutropenia, is hospitalization until the infective complication has resolved, but an accurate clinical stratification of patients based on different medical risks could suggest different approaches to infective complications. The desire of cancer patients to spend as much time as possible at home during the palliative or terminal phase of their illness and the high costs of hospitalization are the main motives behind the early discharge of patients from hospital and the development of strategies that move traditionally inpatient problems or therapies, to the outpatient setting.