Investigation of Fever Control in Febrile Patients: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Context: Fever is one of the most common problems in patients. There are a variety of fever control interventions with different levels of efficacy and side effects across patients, especially among critically ill individuals. In this regard, the current review study was conducted to examine the evidence regarding the nursing interventions used to control fever. Evidence Acquisition: For the current study, the articles on fever control methods were searched throughout several databases including SID, Irandoc, Google Scholar, PubMed, Medline, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and ScienceDirect. The search process was accomplished using the following keywords: "management of fever", hyperthermia", and "nursing intervention". The electronic search was performed without any time limit. The exclusion criteria were the duplicate and incomplete studies, animal studies, the ones without clear statistical analysis, and those with a sample size of < 30 subjects (due to low statistical power). Results: The electronic search resulted in the inclusion of 22 articles. In most of the studies, acetaminophen was introduced as the first choice of therapists to control fever. The adoption of physical methods to manage fever varied across different centers depending on the available facilities and hospital routines. Conclusions: As the findings of the reviewed studies indicated, pharmaceutical and physical methods to manage fever should be selected according to patient's conditions. It is recommended that a combination of physical and pharmaceutical interventions for this purpose be utilized. It is also suggested that proper protocols be presented for the appropriate treatment and management of fever under different conditions.