Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010;33(3):243-8.
doi: 10.1080/10790268.2010.11689701.

Fever during rehabilitation in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury: analysis of 392 cases from a national rehabilitation hospital in Turkey

Sibel Unsal-Delialioglu  1 , Kurtulus Kaya, Sule Sahin-Onat, Fazil Kulakli, Canan Culha, Sumru Ozel
Affiliations

Fever during rehabilitation in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury: analysis of 392 cases from a national rehabilitation hospital in Turkey

Sibel Unsal-Delialioglu et al. J Spinal Cord Med. 2010.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the incidence and etiology of fever and the risk factors related to fever in adults with spinal cord injury (SCI) at the rehabilitation stage.

Design/subjects: A retrospective examination of records of 392 consecutive adult patients with traumatic SCI who received inpatient rehabilitation program.

Setting: A national rehabilitation center in Turkey.

Outcome measures: Incidence and etiology of fever, period of hospitalization (days).

Results: A total of 187 patients (47.7%) had fever at least once during their rehabilitation program. The most common etiology was urinary tract infection. The rate of fever occurrence was significantly higher in patients with complete SCI (P = 0.001). In patients with fever, the use of an indwelling catheter was significantly higher compared with clean intermittent catheterization and spontaneous voiding (P = 0.001). The hospitalization period of patients with fever was significantly longer than that of patients without fever (P = 0.006).

Conclusions: A high rate of fever was seen in patients with SCI during rehabilitation. Fever was caused by various infections, of which urinary tract infection was the most common. Patients with motor complete injuries and those with permanent catheters constituted higher risk groups. Fever prolonged the length of rehabilitation stay and hindered active participation in the rehabilitation program.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. McKinley W, McNamee S, Meade M, Kandra K, Abdul N. Incidence, etiology, and risk factors for fever following acute spinal cord injury. J Spinal Cord Med. 2006;29(5):501–506. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Montgomerie JZ. Infections in patients with spinal cord injuries. Clin Infect Dis. 1997;25(6):1285–1290. - PubMed
    1. Beraldo PS, Neves EG, Alves CM, Khan P, Cirilo AC, Alencar MR. Pyrexia in hospitalised spinal cord injury patients. Paraplegia. 1993;31(3):186–191. - PubMed
    1. Sugarman B, Brown D, Musher D. Fever and infection in spinal cord injury patients. JAMA. 1982;248(1):66–70. - PubMed
    1. Colachis SC, 3rd, Otis SM. Occurrence of fever associated with thermoregulatory dysfunction after acute traumatic spinal cord injury. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 1995;74(2):114–119. - PubMed

MeSH terms