Pediatria pre prax 6/2021

Fever of unknown origin in children

Fever of unknown origin (FUO) is defined as documented fever greater than 38,3 °C of more than 3 weeks duration, the cause of which is uncertain after minimum one week of in-hospital investigations. In children, already fever lasting more than one week is an alarming sign and requires extensive diagnostic evaluation. When diagnosing a child with FUO, the following steps are of crucial importance:

1. establishing the patient’s history; 2) physical examination; 3) laboratory, imaging and other specialised examinations. Premature and excessive therapy (e.g. corticosteroids) may mask cardinal clinical symptoms and delay final diagnosis. It is important to distinguish between fever without source and pseudo-FUO. Herein, we present guidelines with recommendations for targeted diagnosis of FUO.

Keywords: children, fever, fever of unknown origin, guideline