A Study on Patients who were Hospitalized because of Unexplained Fever after an Emergency Department Visit.

Abstract

Many patients visit emergency departments complaining of fever. However, it is often difficult to definitively diagnose such patients at the initial consultation. We retrospectively examined the characteristics of patients who had unexplained fever and were hospitalized, among adult patients who visited our hospital's emergency department between September 2016 and August 2017. Twenty-four patients were included in our study. 13 patients were finally diagnosed as infectious disease. The rate of positive blood cultures was 37.5%. Three patients with positive blood cultures were hospitalized after once discharged from ED. In patients with fever of unknown origin, obtaining blood cultures is important.