Antibiotic stewardship in suspected neutropenic fever (ASTERIC trial): a multicentre, type 1 hybrid effectiveness-implementation, stepped-wedge, randomised controlled trial study protocol.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Neutropenic fever (NF) has a crude mortality rate of 3-18%. International guidelines recommend that all patients with NF receive ultrabroad-spectrum antibiotics (UBSAs) within 1 hour of emergency department (ED) registration. However, over 70% patients presenting to hospital with suspected NF (sNF) cannot access absolute neutrophil count (ANC) result within 1 hour, do not have NF and do not require UBSAs. In ED and hospitalised patients with sNF, we hypothesise that the ASTERIC protocol effectively and safely reduces the use of UBSAs compared with standard care alone.

Methods and analysis

This pragmatic, parallel, multicentre, type 1, hybrid effectiveness-implementation, stepped-wedge, before-and-after, cluster randomised controlled trial aims to evaluate whethe

SUBMITTER: Rainer TH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12645604 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature