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Early peak temperature and mortality in critically ill patients with or without infection

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Abstract

Purpose

To determine whether fever is associated with an increased or decreased risk of death in patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) with infection.

Methods

We evaluated the independent association between peak temperature in the first 24 h after ICU admission and in-hospital mortality according to whether there was an admission diagnosis of infection using a database of admissions to 129 ICUs in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) (n = 269,078). Subsequently, we sought to confirm or refute the ANZ database findings using a validation cohort of admissions to 201 ICUs in the UK (n = 366,973).

Results

A total of 29,083/269,078 (10.8%) ANZ patients and 103,191/366,973 (28.1%) of UK patients were categorised as having an infection. In the ANZ cohort, adjusted in-hospital mortality risk progressively decreased with increasing peak temperature in patients with infection. Relative to the risk at 36.5–36.9°C, the lowest risk was at 39–39.4°C (adjusted OR 0.56; 95% CI 0.48–0.66). In patients without infection, the adjusted mortality risk progressively increased above 39.0°C (adjusted OR 2.07 at 40.0°C or above; 95% CI 1.68–2.55). In the UK cohort, findings were similar with adjusted odds ratios at corresponding temperatures of 0.77 (95% CI 0.71–0.85) and 1.94 (95% CI 1.60–2.34) for infection and non-infection groups, respectively.

Conclusions

Elevated peak temperature in the first 24 h in ICU is associated with decreased in-hospital mortality in critically ill patients with an infection; randomised trials are needed to determine whether controlling fever increases mortality in such patients.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Prof. John Kellum and Prof. Michael Reade for offering their feedback and suggestions on this manuscript. This study was funded by the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, Melbourne, Australia and the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre, London, UK.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, Intensive Care Research, Wellington Regional Hospital, Intensive Care Unit, Wellington, New Zealand

    Paul Jeffrey Young

  2. St George Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Manoj Saxena & John Myburgh

  3. Division of Critical Care and Trauma, George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Manoj Saxena, Simon Finfer & John Myburgh

  4. Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand

    Richard Beasley

  5. Austin Hospital, Intensive Care Unit, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Rinaldo Bellomo

  6. Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Rinaldo Bellomo & Michael Bailey

  7. Intensive Care Unit, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    David Pilcher

  8. Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation, Australian and New Zealand Intensive Society, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    David Pilcher

  9. Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Simon Finfer

  10. Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre, London, UK

    David Harrison & Kathryn Rowan

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  1. Paul Jeffrey Young
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Correspondence to Paul Jeffrey Young.

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Young, P.J., Saxena, M., Beasley, R. et al. Early peak temperature and mortality in critically ill patients with or without infection. Intensive Care Med 38, 437–444 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-012-2478-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-012-2478-3

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