Prevalence and Etiology of Fever in Patients Admitted in ICU of Sanandaj Hospitals and Its Relationship with Demographic Characteristics in 1387

Fever is a common problem in ICU patients. About 70% of patients admitted in ICU suffer from high fever. Since the highest incidence of high fever occurs in patients admitted in ICU, which can lead to an increase in mortality rate, this study attempted to elucidate prevalence and cause of high fever and its relations with demographic characteristics of patients admitted in ICU. in this descriptive-analytical study, 110 patients admitted in ICU of Sanandaj hospitals (with normal temperature at arrival but having high fever (38.3 C) after 24 hours) were studied. Study group includes all febrile patients in a period of March 2008 to August 2009. A standard questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were classified and then analyzed using SPSS software. The results of this study showed that the infectious causes of fever in 28.02, 34.5, and 14.5% patients were due to catheter, ventilator-induced pneumonia, and complications of wound infection, respectively. Cause of high fever in 3.6 percent of cases was abdominal sepsis and sinusitis and Dificil diarrhea account for only 1.8%. In terms of non-infectious causes of fever, the majority of them (29.1%) were related to aspiration pneumonia. The least contributor to high fever was identified jointly to be respiratory distress syndrome, transfusion-induced fever, Decobitus Ulcer and Cholecystitis without obstruction (i.e. each accounts for 1.8 %). Chi square analysis revealed statistically significant relationships between age (P<0.01), length of stay in hospital (P<0.05) and GCS of patients (P<0.01) and fever occurrence. Fever in ICU is relatively common complication in inpatients. Frequency of this complication in current study is similar or even lower than those of conducted studies elsewhere. This finding shows that despite the lack of facilities in hospitals studied, infection control standards and principles of patient care is clearly applied.