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Hospitals often use hypothermia blankets to reduce fever, despite the virtual absence of data on the blankets' safety and efficacy. Investigators in this small, observational study examined 94 febrile episodes (102.5 to 106.5 degrees F) in 83 ICU patients in a Philadelphia hospital, 39 (41 percent) of whom were treated with hypothermia blankets. Fever was due to infection in most cases; no patients had malignant hyperthermia or heat stroke. Blankets were generally ordered by nursing rather than physician staff, and were more commonly used in surgical rather than medical ICUs.
For equivalent degrees of fever below 104, patterns of defervescence were essentially indistinguishable in patients treated with blankets and those not. Mean cooling ra…