942 agement of neutropenic fever in each HSCT center and hema- tologic unit in Korea as a first step towards the development of guideline that is suitable for the actual circumstances of our country. A questionnaire was sent out to selected hematologists and infectious disease specialists in each HSCT center and hematology unit in Korea. The survey was designed to assess the practical policies currently in place with respect to the definition of neutropenic fever, prophylactically and empiri- cally used antimicrobials. In addition, the definition of treat- ment failure and the indications for colony stimulating fac- tor (CSF) treatment and granulocyte transfusion used for the management of neutropenic fever at each site were also asked. When different guidelines were applied between the che- motherapy group and HSCT group, it was recorded sepa- rately to distinguish them. The letter accompanying the questionnaire stressed that the answers should be based on local unit policies and not on personal opinions. This survey was conducted between December 2005 and February 2006. If there were different answers between the hematologist and infectious disease specialist from a center, we verified the data through direct contact by e-mail or telephone to the responsible person in charge. And practical policies were investigated for each of adult and pediatric patients at HSCT centers or hematologic units (from here on, the word ‘site’ refers to the HSCT center and hematology unit). The results were entered into SPSS 13.0 (SPSS Korea, Seoul, Korea) and analyzed using the accompanying software. RESULTS General aspects Questionnaire was sent to 46 doctors (34 that belonged to the department of internal medicine and 12 that belonged to the department of pediatrics) at 34 university hospitals, and 40 (86.9%) of the doctors (34 from the department of internal medicine and 6 from the department of pediatrics) responded. Thirty-four replies from the department of inter- nal medicine included duplicated answers from hematolo- gists and infectious disease specialists at 7 HSCT centers. After verification of the data, practical policies of the 33 sites were obtained from 28 university hospitals throughout Korea (Fig. 1). Twenty-seven (81.8%) of the 33 sites that responded had their own policies regarding the treatment of neutropenic fever, however most of the sites (21/33, 77.8%) based their policies on the IDSA guideline, and only 5 sites (18.5%) used guidelines that they had prepared based on their own MATERIALS AND METHODS Currently used definition Questionnaire Sent to 46 doctors (34 university hospitals) ∙34: Dept. of internal medicine ∙12: Dept. of pediatrics Answered from 40 doctors ∙34: Dept. of internal medicine ∙6: Dept. of pediatrics 6: No reply 7: Duplicated replies Data from 33 sites (28 university hospitals) ∙27: Dept. of internal medicine (16 hematologists & 11 infectious disease specialists) ∙6: Dept. of pediatrics Fig. 1. Process of data collection. S.-M. Choi, S.H. Park, D.-G. Lee, et al. microbiologic data. Thirteen of the sites (39.4%) approached the treatment of neutropenic fever by dividing patients into the high risk group and the low risk group; however, only 3 of these sites actually administered oral antibiotics to the low risk group. The currently used definition of neutropenic fever varied among the sites. Neutropenia was defined as the presence of a neutrophil count of <500 cells/μL or a neutrophil count of <1,000 cells/μL that was predicted to decrease to <500 cells/ μL by 31 sites (93.9%). However, fever was defined as a sin- gle temperature of ≥38.0℃ or a temperature of ≥38.0℃ for >1 hr by 20 sites (60.6%), whereas 2 separate tempera- ture of ≥38.0℃ or a temperature of ≥38.0℃ for >1 or 2 hr was used to define fever in 6 sites (18.2%), and a single temperature of ≥38.3℃ was used in 4 sites (12.1%). Three sites (9.1%) considered ≥37.8℃ as fever. Another point to be considered was that only 2 sites (6.0%) measured the oral temperature as specified in the IDSA guideline, whereas most sites measured the axillary or tympanic membrane tempera- ture (31/33, 93.9%). Also, definition of the fever was not differently applied according to the measured sites. Prophylaxis Antimicrobial prophylaxis was administered to chemother- apy patients in 19 sites (57.6%). Both antibacterial and anti- fungal prophylaxis was done in 12 sites (36.4%). Two sites (6.1%) prescribed only an antibacterial agent and another 2 sites administered only antifungal agents to chemotherapy groups. Furthermore, 3 sites (9.1%) provided only anti-pneu- mocystis prophylaxis and 1 sites provided anti-tuberculous prophylaxis with isoniazid (300 mg/day) to patients who had a past history of tuberculosis and a suspicious lesion on