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Critical Care Nurses Be Aware: Lemierre's Syndrome Is On The Rise, Roseanne Jane, Patricia Johnson

Patricia Johnson

Lemierre's syndrome (LS) typically occurs in previously healthy young adolescents and young adults who become acutely ill following an attack of pharyngotonsillitis. Also known as post anginal sepsis, those afflicted develop pyrexia, rigours and multiple metastatic abscesses that lead to septic thrombophlebitis of the internal jugular vein. In the pre-antibiotic era this particularly virulent syndrome had a mortality rate in excess of 90%, but since the introduction of antibiotics and the widespread treatment of throat infections, it has became almost unknown. However, due to a number of factors, including a reduction in the use of antibiotics for the treatment of …