TY - JOUR T1 - Question 2: Is a lumbar puncture necessary in an afebrile newborn infant with localised skin and soft tissue infection? JF - Archives of Disease in Childhood JO - Arch Dis Child SP - 695 LP - 698 DO - 10.1136/archdischild-2014-306111 VL - 99 IS - 7 AU - Rosa Nguyen AU - Ramachandra Bhat AU - Getachew Teshome Y1 - 2014/07/01 UR - http://adc.bmj.com/content/99/7/695.abstract N2 - A 3-week-old previously healthy full-term infant with uncomplicated perinatal course presents to the emergency room with a large perineal abscess. At home, the infant has been afebrile and otherwise well appearing. On physical examination, a 3×3 cm indurated, tender, nodular lesion with central fluctuation and surrounding erythema was noted in the right perineal region, consistent with a right perianal abscess. Initial sepsis evaluation included basic inflammatory markers and blood and urine cultures. Pus was manually expressed and sent for bacterial culture. Intravenous antibiotic treatment was initiated. The resident taking care of the baby wonders if a lumbar puncture (LP) should be performed as part of the sepsis evaluation to rule out occult meningitis. In afebrile neonates with localised skin and soft tissue infection (POPULATION), is routine LP necessary (INTERVENTION) to evaluate for occult meningitis? (OUTCOME) Search date: 12 April 2013. Primary source: The PubMed database and Scopus. Secondary source: The Cochrane Library. English language literature sources were searched using either text word (tw) or medical subject subheading (MeSH): (infant, newborn (MeSH) OR neonates (tw) OR neonate (tw) AND (focal infection (MeSH) OR cellulitis (MeSH) OR soft tissue infections (MeSH) OR abscess (MeSH) OR mastitis (MeSH)) OR neonatal mastitis (tw) AND cellulitis adenitis syndrome (tw). … ER -