Efficacy of a protocol to distinguish risk of serious bacterial infection in the outpatient evaluation of febrile young infants.

A study of 534 febrile infants ages 4 to 8 weeks evaluated for sepsis assessed the efficacy of the Milwaukee Protocol (MP) for selecting patients at low risk for serious bacterial infection (SBI) who might benefit from outpatient management. Two groups were compared: 1) Infants with uncompromised presentation (UP) who met all MP criteria received ceftriaxone 50 mg/kg and were discharged, then reevaluated within 24 hours. 2) Infants with compromised presentation (CP) who did not meet MP criteria were hospitalized for antibiotic therapy pending culture results. Of 391 CP patients, 23 (5.9%) had SBI; of 143 UP patients, 1 (0.7%) had SBI (P < .02). The MP criteria had a sensitivity of 96% and a 99% negative predictive value for distinguishing SBI outcome. The only UP patient with SBI was afebrile and had a negative repeat blood culture after 24 hours, and recovered with no complications. Managing UP infants as outpatients avoided 48 to 72 hours of hospitalization, decreasing health-care costs by an estimated total of $465,170.