Paucis Verbis: Fever without a source (29 days-3 months old)

In part 2 of this “Pediatric Fever Without a Source” Paucis Verbis cards, we now cover febrile infants aged 29 days to 3 months (PV card for birth-28 days). Note that there is no single correct answer in how to manage these patients. There can be a wide variation in practices, partly because of the slightly different criteria used by the 3 studies. The overarching principle is that “high risk” infants get admitted with IV ceftriaxone and “low risk” infants get discharged with close follow-up +/- a ceftriaxone IV or IM dose. The line between these two risk categories is the grey area.

Where I practice, we tend to follow a modified version of the Rochester criteria, where a lumbar puncture and antibiotics aren’t always required for this age group (unlike the Boston criteria).

PV Card: Pediatric Fever Without a Source (29 Days-3 Months)

Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

Keep a lookout for future PV cards which will address fevers without a source in pediatric patients aged 3 months-3 years old.

Thanks to Dr. Hemal Kanzaria (UCSF-SFGH resident) for helping design this PV card and Dr. Christine Cho, Dr. Andi Marmor, and Dr. Ellen Laves (UCSF Pediatrics) for the content.

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