BACKGROUND
Traditionally, critically ill patients with infection and fever have been cooled in order to decrease metabolic demands.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of body temperature on the course of intensive care unit (ICU) treatment of mechanically ventilated patients with pneumonia with positive tracheal aspirates on admission and sepsis.
METHODS
We performed a single-center retrospective study comparing patients with negative tracheal aspirates one week after ICU admission (P-N group), to patients with a different pathogen in tracheal aspirates one week after ICU admission (P-HAP group), and to patients with a persisting pathogen in tracheal aspirates one week after ICU admission (P-P group).
RESULTS
We observed a significantly higher average temperature in the first 48 hours after ICU admission in patients who survived to hospital discharge (37.2°C (36.6°C, 37.6°C) vs. 36.9°C (35.8°C, 37.4°C), p=0.038). We observed a significantly greater use of paracetamol in the P-N group (1.0±1.1 g vs. 0.4±0.7 g vs. 0.4±0.8 g, p=0.009), a trend towards greater use of active cooling in the first 24 hours after ICU admission in the P-N group (44% vs. 33.3% vs. 32%, p=0.57), and no other significant differences in parameters of ICU treatment between patient groups.
CONCLUSIONS
Our data supports the strategy of temperature tolerance in intubated patients with pneumonia and sepsis.
CLINICALTRIAL
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