Neutropenic sepsis: Cause, diagnosis, and treatment

CPD hours:
2

Neutropenic sepsis is a significant infection following immunosuppression due to a low neutrophil count.

It is a common and predictable complication of bone marrow disorders and anticancer treatments, particularly chemotherapy.

The estimated incidence is 70-100% during the neutropenic phase after intensive cytotoxic therapy.

Neutropenic sepsis is a time-critical oncological emergency.

It is the leading cause of non-relapse related mortality in patients with cancer undergoing intensive chemotherapy.

The risk of life-threatening infection is related to the degree of immunosuppression, as indicated by the neutrophil count.

Optimising diagnosis and management of neutropenic sepsis can improve outcomes and reduce mortality for patients undergoing cytotoxic cancer therapies.

This module focuses on

  • Neutropenic sepsis in adults secondary to cytotoxic anticancer treatments.
  • Causes of neutropenic sepsis and the assessment and treatment of patients.
  • The integral role of registered nurses who come in contact with patients with cancer in the identification and management of neutropenic sepsis.

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

At the end of this module participants will be able to:

  • Describe neutropenia and when it might occur in patients with cancer.
  • Describe neutropenic sepsis.
  • Explain why early identification of neutropenic sepsis is important.
  • Discuss the management of neutropenic sepsis.
  • Provide information about strategies that patients with neutropenia can use to minimise their risk of contracting an infection.

At the end of this module participants will be able to:

  • This is learning objective 1.
  • This is learning objective 2.
  • This is learning objective 3.
  • This is learning objective 4.
  • This is learning objective 5.
  • This is learning objective 6.

Other modules to explore

See all modules

Any screen anytime

Fully responsive and optimised for use no matter what the screen size.

User dashboard

Ready access to all of the important functionalities of the LMS at your fingertips.

ePortfolio

All plans, documents and achievements in one single, secure, portal.

Single sign-on

Single sign-on through your website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.