Erschienen in:
01.06.2015 | Editorial
An injured brain needs cooling down: yes
verfasst von:
Kees H. Polderman
Erschienen in:
Intensive Care Medicine
|
Ausgabe 6/2015
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Excerpt
A large proportion of patients with any type of acute brain injury will develop fever within the first few days of their ICU or hospital stay [
1]. The causes are variable. Often, the patient gets so-called central (non-infectious) fever, as a direct consequence of the brain injury itself. In addition, brain-injured patients are at exceptionally high risk of infections; apart from the risk of complications such as aspiration pneumonia (due to decreased consciousness and diminished protective reflexes), brain injury can directly induce immune dysfunction (mediated through the vagal nerve, with efferent signals inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokine production), leading to an immunocompromised state with increased susceptibility to infections [
2,
3]. …