• Sevim Çelik, Ismail Yildirim, Ibrahim Arslan, Sinan Yildirim, Fatih Erdal, and Yunus Emre Yandi.
• Zonguldak School of Health, Nursing Department, Campus of Health Sciences, Zonguldak Karaelmas University, Kozlu, Zonguldak, Turkey. sevimakcel@yahoo.com
• Int J Nurs Pract. 2011 Dec 1;17(6):556-61.

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to determine the effects of fever and nursing interventions to lower fever on hemodynamic values and oxygenation in febrile (temperature greater than 38.3°C) surgical intensive care unit patients. This retrospective study was conducted in 53 febrile patients out of 519 patients admitted to the surgical intensive care unit at a university hospital. Data were obtained from the medical records, laboratory files and nursing notes. Statistical analysis of the data was analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance and a paired sample t-test. The average hourly urine output (F = 5.46; P = 0.002) and systolic blood pressure (F = 2.87; P = 0.03) were significantly lower after fever onset. Heart rate, respiratory rate, positive end-expiratory pressure settings and FiO(2) settings were unchanged after the development of fever. Diastolic blood pressure and oxygen saturation had non-statistically significant decreases. Nursing interventions for febrile patients consisted of medication administration (69.8%), ice (62.3%) and sponging with tepid water (62.3%). The present results showed that fever was associated with an increase in heart rate, decreased systolic arterial pressure, mean arterial pressure, oxygen saturation and hourly urine output.© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

18 keywords...

hide…