Fever management in acute brain injury.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Fever is common after acute brain injury and is associated with poor prognosis in this setting.

RECENT FINDINGS: Achieving normothermia is feasible in patients with ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury. Pharmacological strategies (i.e. paracetamol or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) are frequently ineffective and physical (i.e. cooling devices) therapies are often required. There are no good quality data supporting any benefit from therapeutic strategies aiming at normothermia in all brain injured patients when compared with standard of care, where mild-to-moderate fever is tolerated. However, recent guidelines recommended fever control in this setting.

SUMMARY: As fever is considered a clinically relevant secondary brain damage, we have provided an individualized therapeutic approach to treat it in brain injured patients, which deserved further validation in the clinical setting.