Revisiting the panculture

Traditionally, generations of physicians have been taught that the evaluation of the febrile hospitalised patient consists of the ‘panculture;’ that is, microbiological culture of blood, urine, sputum or stool in search of an offending pathogen. Often, these laboratory tests are paired with complementary imaging such as chest or abdominal X-rays in order to elucidate sources of infection. Indeed, it is hard to find a ‘competent’ physician that has not developed this repertoire during the course of their practice.