Journal of intensive care medicine
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J Intensive Care Med · Nov 2014
Observational StudyFever after rewarming: incidence of pyrexia in postcardiac arrest patients who have undergone mild therapeutic hypothermia.
Induction of mild therapeutic hypothermia (TH; temperature 32-34°C) has become standard of care in many hospitals for comatose survivors of cardiac arrest. Pyrexia, or fever, is known to be detrimental in patients with neurologic injuries such as stroke or trauma. The incidence of pyrexia in the postrewarming phase of TH is unknown. We attempted to determine the incidence of fever after TH and hypothesized that those patients who were febrile after rewarming would have worse clinical outcomes than those who maintained normothermia in the postrewarming period. ⋯ Among a cohort of patients who underwent mild TH after OHCA, more than half of these patients developed pyrexia in the first 24 hours after rewarming. Although there were no significant differences in outcomes between febrile and nonfebrile patients identified in this study, these findings should be further evaluated in a larger cohort. Future investigations may be needed to determine whether postrewarming temperature management will improve the outcomes in this population.