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Because current blood-culture technology does not allow for immediate results, patients may be discharged from the emergency department (ED) and subsequently found to be bacteremic. Such bacteremias have been termed “occult” because clinical indicators of sepsis are absent at the time of examination. Previous studies addressing this issue have focused mainly on pediatric patients; little information exists on adults. Bacteremia caused by Staphylococcus aureus is of particular concern because it can be complicated by endovascular, deep-seated, or metastatic infections.
To explore this issue, investigators retrospectively reviewed the records of patients aged ≥15 who were found to have positive blood cultures after discharge from a large ED in…