SynthesisPloS one2017
Fever Is Associated with Reduced, Hypothermia with Increased Mortality in Septic Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 88 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
88 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 176 citations in OpenAlex.
- Fever on hospital admission is associated with increased disease severity and mortality in acute pancreatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Macrophage migration inhibitory factor as a diagnostic and predictive biomarker in sepsis: meta-analysis of clinical trials.Scientific reports · 2021Pooled it
- Systemic antibiotic prophylaxis does not affect infectious complications in pediatric burn injury: A meta-analysis.PloS one · 2019Pooled it
- Core Warming of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients Undergoing Mechanical Ventilation: A Pilot Study.Therapeutic hypothermia and temperature management · 2023Trial
- Therapeutic Hyperthermia Is Associated With Improved Survival in Afebrile Critically Ill Patients With Sepsis: A Pilot Randomized Trial.Critical care medicine · 2022Trial
- Fever and hypothermia represent two populations of sepsis patients and are associated with outside temperature.Critical care (London, England) · 2021Trial
- Clinical characteristics and prognosis of peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis caused by non-fermenting Gram-negative bacteria: a single-center retrospective analysis.Renal failure · 2026Article
- The carotid body in sepsis: From homeostatic defense to immunometabolic dysregulation.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Review
- Association between early body temperature dynamic trajectory and mortality and infection rates for patients with cardiac arrest in ICU: a retrospective study.Journal of thoracic disease · 2026Article
- The poikilothermic hypothesis of sepsis.Critical care (London, England) · 2026Review
- Critical care nurses' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding hypothermia management during continuous renal replacement therapy: a cross-sectional study.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- The Association Between Early Postoperative Temperature Trajectories and Severe Acute Kidney Injury After Valvular Heart Surgery: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Temperature Trajectories Are Associated With the Prognosis of Septic Patients.Emergency medicine international · 2026Article
- Relation between initial hypothermia, course of the hypothermia and mortality in patients with septic shock: a post-hoc analysis of the SEPSISPAM randomized trial.Annals of intensive care · 2026Article
- Article
- Body temperature as a dynamic host-response biomarker in sepsis: trajectories and time-varying mortality risk.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Development, Validation, and Deployment of an Interpretable Machine Learning Model for In-Hospital Mortality Prediction in Critically Ill Patients with COPD and Sepsis: A Multicenter Cohort Study.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2026Article
- Temperature profiles in adult intensive care unit patients treated for infection in a tertiary intensive care unit: A single-centre prospective observational cohort study.Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine · 2025Article
- Sepsis in the absence of fever: Determining the criteria for and feasibility of future therapeutic temperature management trials.Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine · 2025Article
- Development of a nomogram to predict 30-day mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease complicated by sepsis: insights from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC-IV) database.Journal of thoracic disease · 2025Article
28 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSepsis is usually accompanied by changes of body temperature (Tb), but whether fever and hypothermia predict mortality equally or differently is not fully clarified. We aimed to find an association between Tb and mortality in septic patients with meta-analysis of clinical trials.
methodsWe searched the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry databases (from inception to February 2016). Human studies reporting Tb and mortality of patients with sepsis were included in the analyses. Average Tb with SEM and mortality rate of septic patient groups were extracted by two authors independently.
resultsForty-two studies reported Tb and mortality ratios in septic patients (n = 10,834). Pearson correlation analysis revealed weak negative linear correlation (R2 = 0.2794) between Tb and mortality. With forest plot analysis, we found a 22.2% (CI, 19.2-25.5) mortality rate in septic patients with fever (Tb > 38.0°C), which was higher, 31.2% (CI, 25.7-37.3), in normothermic patients, and it was the highest, 47.3% (CI, 38.9-55.7), in hypothermic patients (Tb < 36.0°C). Meta-regression analysis showed strong negative linear correlation between Tb and mortality rate (regression coefficient: -0.4318; P < 0.001). Mean Tb of the patients was higher in the lowest mortality quartile than in the highest: 38.1°C (CI, 37.9-38.4) vs 37.1°C (CI, 36.7-37.4).
conclusionsDeep Tb shows negative correlation with the clinical outcome in sepsis. Fever predicts lower, while hypothermia higher mortality rates compared with normal Tb. Septic patients with the lowest (< 25%) chance of mortality have higher Tb than those with the highest chance (> 75%).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.