Arch Intern Med
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Is it worth treating fever in intensive care unit patients? Preliminary results from a randomized trial of the effect of external cooling.
Antipyresis is a common clinical practice in intensive care, although it is unknown if fever is harmful, beneficial, or a negligible adverse effect of infection and inflammation. ⋯ These results suggest that the systematic suppression of fever may not be useful in patients without severe cranial trauma or significant hypoxemia. Letting fever take its natural course does not seem to harm patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome or influence the discomfort level and may save costs.
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Patients with infections are usually discharged from the hospital with antibiotics when afebrile and clinically improved. ⋯ The infectious diseases hospitalist discharged patients from the hospital earlier than the IM hospitalists by more efficient use of antibiotics. The earlier discharge did not adversely affect outcomes.