Leukemia

Etiology / Pathophysiology

• Malignant white blood cell production in bone marrow.
• Abnormal cells crowd marrow, causing anemia, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, organ infiltration, and infection/bleeding risk.

Medications

No specific medication class was seeded for this card.

Nursing actions

• Assess fever, infection, bleeding, bruising, fatigue, bone pain, lymph nodes, and treatment side effects.
• Use infection and bleeding precautions based on counts.
• Escalate fever, respiratory symptoms, neurologic changes, or uncontrolled bleeding.

Complications

• Sepsis
• Hemorrhage
• Tumor lysis syndrome
• Anemia
• Relapse

NCLEX cues

• Fatigue, bruising, recurrent infections, bone pain.
• Fever during chemotherapy is emergency.
• Avoid rectal temps/IM injections when counts are low.

Memory hooks

• Leukemia crowds out normal marrow.

Labs / Diagnostics

• CBC with differential
• Peripheral smear
• Bone marrow biopsy
• Coagulation labs
• Uric acid/electrolytes during treatment

Review notes

• Supplemental wife-requested study card. Use for NCLEX review only and verify against school materials, ATI/NCLEX review sources, current orders, and facility policy.