Outcome of an elective readmission policy in patients receiving acute myeloid leukaemia consolidation therapy and implications for an outpatient management programme.

Abstract

Safe outpatient management of acute leukaemia consolidation cycles may enable substantial savings in admission costs. Safety involves the prompt administration of antibiotics in patients with neutropenic fever. Our unit in a metropolitan tertiary referral hospital analysed a cohort of patients spanning a 10-year period, with two key observations: (i) a high proportion of patients living a substantial distance from hospital and (ii) the high incidence and generally prompt onset of fever after severe neutropenia, suggesting this broad applicability of this approach is unfeasible without addressing travel issues and potentially reducing and/or delaying neutropenic fever with prophylactic antibiotics.