There are five types of white blood cells and neutrophils are most important type of them. They are of 50% to 70% of circulating white blood cells. So, the patients of neutropenia are usually affected by bacterial infections and if they are not treated carefully, the disease can be life threatening.

Neutropenia can be acute or chronic depending on the duration of disease. If the patient is having neutropenia problem since three months, it is of chronic type. The term leucopenia is often used as alternative for neutropenia which means decrease in white blood cells and as the reason, most leukocytes are neutrophils.

There are several causes for the neutropenia from the creation of cells in the bone marrow to the destruction of cells elsewhere in the body. Treatment thus depends on the cause and in that regard prevention and treatment of infection is concerned. There are three different classifications of neutropenia including mild, moderate and severe and they have minimal to severe risks of infection.

Usually the symptoms of neutropenia are undetected unless a patient has developed severe infections.

Some of the common symptoms of neutropenia have fevers and infections which may cause diarrhea, unusual redness, pain or swelling around wound, mouth ulcers, sore throat or burning sensation during urination.

Usually full blood count is required to check neutrophils and bone marrow biopsy is often required when severe symptoms are detected. Auto-anti-bodies test is also done for checking other complexities of the disease. There is no ideal therapy for neutropenia patients but G-CSF can be applied on chemotherapy patients and those patients with congenital forms.