Evaluation and management of febrile infants in the emergency department

Managing fever in pediatric patients has always been a high-risk aspect of emergency medicine, and this is especially true of infants. The task of correctly discerning "well" versus "ill" can be difficult for these patients because they cannot describe their symptoms and have not developed normal social behaviors. Recent studies, however, have greatly enhanced physicians' understanding of how best to manage these young patients. With this research comes an array of new recommendations for diagnosing and treating febrile infants, which can be incorporated into the practice of every emergency physician who cares for pediatric patients.