Indications for the symptomatic treatment of fever
1. Absolute indications:
– Body temperature 40 ° C
– Age from 6 months to 3 years
– Age younger than 6 years plus convulsions in the anamnesis
– Heart and lung diseases
– Renal or metabolic disorders
– Water and electrolyte disturbances
– Acute neurological diseases
– Sepsis
– shock
– Thermoregulation disorders *
– Heat diseases caused by external factors **
– Sickle cell anemia
2. Relative indications:
– Temperature 38.5–40 ° С
– Age younger than 5 years
– Neurological diseases
Including children with damage to the spinal cord and brain, ectodermal dysplasia, etc., as well as patients receiving atropine, aminazine, and other drugs that violate thermoregulation.
Thermal diseases do not cause a fever, but are included in this table for convenience and reminders.
Based on the literature, Kluger came to the conclusion that reducing high fever to moderate was favorable for patients, but reducing moderate fever to normal temperature was apparently dangerous for them.
The first part of this conclusion is trustworthy, the latter seems somewhat hasty. Bennett made a simple but important conclusion from observations of 51 patients with untreated lobar pneumonia caused by type III pneumococcus: “High fever was more common in patients who died than in those who recovered.”