Sterile cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis in young febrile infants with urinary tract infections.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of and to identify risk factors for sterile cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pleocytosis in a large sample of febrile young infants with urinary tract infections (UTIs) and to describe the clinical courses of those patients.

Design: Secondary analysis of a multicenter retrospective review.

Setting: Emergency departments of 20 North American hospitals.

Febrile infants with urinary tract infections at very low risk for adverse events and bacteremia.

Background: There is limited evidence from which to derive guidelines for the management of febrile infants aged 29 to 60 days with urinary tract infections (UTIs). Most such infants are hospitalized for ≥48 hours. Our objective was to derive clinical prediction models to identify febrile infants with UTIs at very low risk of adverse events and bacteremia in a large sample of patients.