Case Study: Nursing Practice

Patho-physiological Process

Infections in patients with febrile neutropenia

The complications of patients with febrile neutropenia are high. The fevers of patients suffering from febrile neutropenia are differentiated by the changes of illness and the treatments that the patient is going through. It also depends on the effects of drugs used and the change of microbiological patterns. Many methods have been proposed for the patients so that they can benefit from the outpatient prescription.

Patients suffering from cancer receive treatment that can seriously affect their immune system. The disease and treatment therapies play a major role on this aspect. However due to growth in technology and research the modern medicine and treatment procedures have the capability to fight the infection caused by micro organisms that were said to be harmless. By researches we have come to know that these microorganisms effect on the immune systems of the patient and also the defense mechanisms of the body. As new treatments are being introduced for the treatment of cancer there is also a change in the epidemiological profiles of the microorganisms which further bring challenges for the specialists and researchers.

Neutropenia medically known of having (granulocyte count of <500 cells/mm3) is the best known form of immunocompromise that patients get when undergoing the treatment of cancer. It has many effects on the mechanical barrier caused due to the disease and treatments. For cancer treatments the medications used increase the risk of infection. Among them are the monoclonal antibodies used to treat leukemia and lymphoma. These have created new problems in medications and brought many specialists to concern.

Chemotherapy is used for patients suffering from cancer. In the human body neutrophils are the first defense barrier against the infection that may be caused by chemotherapy. In neutropenia the inflammatory response is stopped which allows the bacteria production and multiplications. Since neutropenia reduce the symptoms of the infection, therefore patients with neutropenia often have fever. This is the only sign neutropenia patients have to show infection. Febrile neutropenia patients are hospitalized and treated with intravenous antibiotics. This is mainly because of the risk of death that may be due to the rapidly increasing infection in the body.

Consequences of Febrile Neutropenia

The relation between the risk of infection and the neutrophil count in the human body has been long for a long time. It is also known that the use of antibiotics before the confirmation of infection is very critical for the patients with febrile neutropenia. This is because the infection can progress very fast in these types of patient. The infection sites for patients with febrile neutropenia are mainly the lungs and skin. This is where the therapies make way for pathogens. The mostly commonly known organism that infects patients with neutropenia and cancer are gram-negative rods. There has been a change in these organisms after the effective use of empiric antibiotics. This change has gone from the highly hazardous and lethal gram-negative bacteria to an idler gram positive bacteria and ...