Initial evaluation for and management of bacteremia and bacterial meningitis in infants.

The diagnosis of bacteremia or meningitis in young infants may be straightforward or difficult. Clinical assessment is important in segregating a high risk group from the large number of febrile children with less serious infections. Specific diagnostic procedures such as culture of the blood and examination of the cerebrospinal fluid may need to be employed, despite a lack of definitive clinical or nonspecific laboratory test results. The physician who first encounters such children must develop guidelines for the use of these diagnostic tests.