A five-step program for diagnostic test addiction

Time for paediatrics to screen out sepsis “screening”

“…The outcomes of a sepsis screen may result in harm due to the risk of false positive tests from blood cultures 11 and urine cultures 12 resulting in longer patient stay, further investigations which are often painful for the child 13 and risk of iatrogenic harm. 14 Campbell and colleagues 15 Outside of the neonatal period where the decision to treat for invasive infections can be undertaken on the basis of risk factors alone, the application of Campbell's rules would suggest "Sepsis screening" is not useful for diagnosis of sepsis, which is a clinical syndrome. In order to help us detect those febrile children who may have, or be showing early signs of sepsis, we need to develop a system of identifying children who are at higher risk of sepsis.…”