Primary Treatment: Antibiotics. Proper diagnosis is the biggest challenge!

Antibiotics are usually the primary treatment for Lemierre's. In my daughter's case, diagnosis came very late. We kept getting sent home with the possible diagnosis of "strept throat." 

Trying to find an underlying diagnosis for many conditions can be a very long and frustrating experience. With more rare conditions, like Lemierre's, a diagnosis can often take a long time. But the patient may not have the time to wait.

Lemierre's is considered a RARE disease. There are two other names for this disease:

2. Necrobacillosis and 

3. Oropharyngeal infection leading to secondary septic thrombophlebitis of the internal jugular vein

The important thing to remember is to keep pushing and be your own child's BEST advocate if doctor's cannot figure out or properly diagnose what's wrong. It's in cases like these you have to be the advocate and be involved. It's not the doctor's fault. 

In our case, I am grateful after a number of trips to the emergency room, one doctor at Scripps Encinitas Medical Center just happened to take a blood test. That is the instance they discovered my daughter Bri had sepsis in her blood. The clot in her jugular vein was spewing out bacteria into her blood. It is that one doctor who made the decision to take a blood test that initially saved her life!

Is Lemierre's cureable?

I found the following on netdoctor.com. I believe it simplifies what exactly Lemierre's is. Reprinted here from netdoctor.com

Question

What is Lemierre's disease?

Answer

Lemierre's syndrome is a rare complication of tonsillitis and other infections of the throat.

It was first recognised by a French physician in 1936 and is increasingly uncommon nowadays due to the use of effective antibiotics early on in the course of a bacterial illness.

In simple terms, Lemierre's syndrome describes an illness associated with the above and results in inflammation of the internal jugular vein.

This can lead to septicaemia (blood poisoning) and areas of infection at places elsewhere in the body.

The diagnosis is confirmed when the responsible bacteria can be grown from a sample of blood ('blood culture').

Treatment is by high dose antibiotics in hospital, usually straight in to a vein ('intravenously') and is continued for a period of up to six weeks after discharge from the hospital.

Because of the severity of the illness, and the susceptibility of the patient to develop septic areas within the lungs as a result of the original infection spreading.

Hospital admission is always needed and sometimes artificial ventilation for a while on an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

With successful antibiotic treatment started promptly, a full recovery is to be expected, which, unfortunately, wasn't so often the case in Lemierre's day. Youngsters suffering from this complaint could easily succumb.

It sounds all in all like a particularly nasty infection and I for one am very glad that it is becoming a more rare occurrence these days.

Yours sincerely

The Medical Team

Read more: http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/ate/ent/203158.html#ixzz2ag8CuH80 
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