Clinical Medicine Research

Special Issue

Fever: Incidence, Clinical Assessment, Management Choices & Outcomes

  • Submission Deadline: 30 December 2015
  • Status: Submission Closed
  • Lead Guest Editor: Hossein ASGAR POUR
About This Special Issue
Core body temperature (CBT), arterial blood pressure, pulse, respiration and pain are basic vital signs and indicators of an individual’s health status. Changes in physiological functions are reflected in the values of an individual’s basic vital signs. Deviations from the normal values of vital signs indicate the disruption of homeostasis. Fever results from a cytokine mediated reaction that results in the generation of acute phase reactants and controlled elevation of core body temperature. Fever is an adaptive response to a variety of infectious, inflammatory, foreign stimuli and surgery. The incidence of fever ranges between 28% and 75% in critically ill patients, and fever has an infection and non-infectious causes. About 50% of fevers in ICU patients are due to infectious causes. On the other hand, between 40-50 % of patients develop fever after surgery depending on type of surgery but only a small percentage turn out to be due to infection. Fever of unknown origin remain one of the most common and difficult diagnostic problems faced daily by clinicians. In addition, pattern of temperature changes (continuous fever, intermittent fever, quotidian fever, tertian fever, quartan fever, remittent fever, pel-ebstein fever and neutropenic fever) may occasionally hint at the diagnosis. CBT increase to be followed by increase of oxygen consumption and energy expenditure. These increases in the metabolic rate and serum levels of stress hormones are suggested to subsequently change in haemodynamic parameters. Non-pharmacological and pharmacological methods are used to reduce CBT in febrile patients, but little researchs related to the effects of these methods on guests have been performed. Among critically ill patients, the effect of antipyretics on survival in patients with sepsis is unclear. Although the use of antipyretics to treat fever among patients with presumed severe sepsis may increase the risk of mortality in this setting. On the basis of these data, there is a plausible biological rationale that the presence of fever has different implications in patients with infection compared with those without infection. It is important for physicians/nurses to appreciate the causes of fever in medical-surgical patients and physiological effects of fever related on causes on haemodynamic parameters which can cause complications in these settings. Furthermore accurate and careful patient’s assessment and monitoring during febrile episodes can be helpful to determine the process of fever treatment choice and effects of thismethods on haemodynamic parameters and complication of treatment methods such as morbidity and mortality.
Lead Guest Editor
  • Hossein ASGAR POUR

    Surgical Nursing Department, Aydın School of Health, Adnan Menderes University, Aydın, Turkey

Guest Editors
  • Meryem YAVUZ

    Nursing Faculty, Surgical Nursing Department, Ege Univeristy, Izmir, Turkey

Published Articles
  • Fever Evaluation, Complication and Treatment in Surgical Patients

    Hossein Asgar Pour , Serap Gökçe

    Issue: Volume 5, Issue 2-1, March 2016
    Pages: 11-15
    Received: 1 February 2016
    Accepted: 13 February 2016
    Published: 14 March 2016
    DOI: 10.11648/j.cmr.s.2016050201.13
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    Abstract: Fever following surgery is a common event occurring in 14%-91% of postoperative patients. Fever can occur immediately after surgery and seen to be related directly to the operation or may occur sometime after the surgery as a result of complication related to surgery. Although the list of causes of postoperative fever is extensive, the initial focu... Show More
  • Hospital-Acquired Infections in Internal-Surgical Intensive Care Unit Patients: A Retrospective Study

    Hossein Asgar Pour , Büşra Tipirdamaz , Dilara Kunter , Havva Yönem , Hatice Özsoy

    Issue: Volume 5, Issue 2-1, March 2016
    Pages: 6-10
    Received: 2 November 2015
    Accepted: 2 November 2015
    Published: 20 January 2016
    DOI: 10.11648/j.cmr.s.2016050201.12
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    Abstract: Introduction: Hospital-acquired infections cause the length of stay in hospital, morbidity, mortality, and increase the cost of treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of hospital-acquired infections in adult internal-surgical intensive care unit patients, distribution of infections according to the intensive care units, the... Show More
  • Core Body Temperature Changes During Surgery and Nursing Management

    Rahşan Çam , Havva Yönem , Hatice Özsoy

    Issue: Volume 5, Issue 2-1, March 2016
    Pages: 1-5
    Received: 8 July 2015
    Accepted: 9 December 2015
    Published: 20 January 2016
    DOI: 10.11648/j.cmr.s.2016050201.11
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    Abstract: The fact that surgical procedures and anaesthesia implementation affect thermoregulation, decrease heat production and increase heat loss cause hypothermia in the individual. This situation may create serious physiological problems both during and after the operation especially in risky patients. Surgical operation is a process threatening that bod... Show More