SynthesisIntensive care medicine2019
Fever control in critically ill adults. An individual patient data meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.
Synthesis in Intensive care medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
25 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Long-term health effects of antipyretic drug use in the aging population: a systematic review.Journal of medicine and life · 2024Pooled it
- Lower or higher oxygenation targets in the intensive care unit: an individual patient data meta-analysis.Intensive care medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Fever therapy in febrile adults: systematic review with meta-analyses and trial sequential analyses.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2022Pooled it
- Clinical course of patients with bloodstream infections enrolled in the BALANCE clinical trial.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2025Trial
- 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
- Randomised evaluation of active control of temperature versus ordinary temperature management (REACTOR) trial.Intensive care medicine · 2019Trial
- Body temperature as a dynamic host-response biomarker in sepsis: trajectories and time-varying mortality risk.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- The Effect of Body Temperature Changes on the Course of Treatment in Patients With Pneumonia and Sepsis: Results of an Observational Study.Interactive journal of medical research · 2024Article
- Article
- Temperature management in the intensive care unit: a practical survey from China.The Libyan journal of medicine · 2023Article
- Heterogeneity between studies can be explained more reliably with individual patient data.Intensive care medicine · 2023Article
- Staff perspectives on the influence of patient characteristics on alarm management in the intensive care unit: a cross-sectional survey study.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Temperature control in sepsis.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Review
- Impact of an Educational Program on Improving Nurses' Management of Fever: An Experimental Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Fever in the ICU: A Predictor of Mortality in Mechanically Ventilated COVID-19 Patients.Journal of intensive care medicine · 2021Article
- Turning up the heat on fever research?Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine · 2021Article
- Accuracy of non-invasive body temperature measurement methods in adult patients admitted to the intensive care unit: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine · 2021Review
- Let fever do its job: The meaning of fever in the pandemic era.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeOne potential way to protect patients from the physiological demands that are a consequence of fever is to aim to prevent fever and to treat it assiduously when it occurs. Our primary hypothesis was that more active fever management would increase survival among patient subgroups with limited physiological reserves such as older patients, patients with higher illness acuity, and those requiring organ support.
methodsWe conducted an individual-level patient data meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials to compare the outcomes of ICU patients who received more active fever management with the outcomes of patients who received less active fever management. The primary outcome variable of interest was the unadjusted time to death after randomisation.
resultsOf 1413 trial participants, 707 were assigned to more active fever management and 706 were assigned to less active fever management. There was no statistically significant heterogeneity in the effect of more active compared with less active fever management on survival in any of the pre-specified subgroups that were chosen to identify patients with limited physiological reserves. Overall, more active fever management did not result in a statistically significant difference in survival time compared with less active fever management [hazard ratio 0.91; (95% CI 0.75-1.10), P = 0.32].
conclusionsOur findings do not support the hypothesis that more active fever management increases survival compared with less active fever management overall or in patients with limited physiological reserves.
Indexed as
Identifiers
30741326What OpenQuestion holds
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.