Fever in the ICU: Review of SCCM/IDSA Guideline Update
The Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) issued an interim update to their 2008 recommendations for the management of fever in the ICU. PulmCCM is not affiliated with SCCM or IDSA.
Virtually all the recommendations were based on weak evidence and represent a consensus of expert opinion. They shouldn’t be considered automatically applicable to immunosuppressed patients.
You can read the document here.
What’s a Fever? Depends On the Patient, and Who You Ask
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a fever (for general hospitalized patients) as >38°C.
For ICU patients, the SCCM and IDSA have agreed fever is ≥38.3°C (100.9°F).
For patients >65 years old living in long-term care facilities, IDSA feels lower thresholds should be used (e.g., >37.2°C oral measured multiple times).
Also, many patients with infection won’t have fevers, and those that don’t may be at the highest risk for poor outcomes. And so the recommendations…
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