Prognostic Significance of Body Temperature in the Emergency Department Vs the ICU in Patients with Severe Sepsis or Septic Shock: A Nationwide Cohort Study

Background: Increased body temperature in the Emergency Department (BT-ED) and the ICU (BT-ICU) is associated with lower mortality in patients with sepsis. Here, we compared how well BT-ED and BT-ICU predict mortality; investigated mortality in various combinations of BT-ED and BT-ICU, and; compared degree of fever in the ED and ICU and associated quality of care.

Methods: 2385 adults who were admitted to an ICU within 24 hours of ED arrival with severe sepsis or septic shock were included.

Results: Thirty-day mortality was 23.6%. Median BT-ED and BT-ICU was 38.1 and 37.6°C. Crude mortality decreased more than 5% points per°C increase for both BT-ED and BT-ICU. Adjusted OR for mortality was 0.82/°C increase for BT-ED (0.76-0.88, p < 0.001), and 0.89 for BT-ICU (0.83-0.95, p<0.001). Patients who were at/below median temperature in both the ED and in the ICU had the highest mortality, 32%, and those with over median in the ED and at/below in the ICU had the lowest, 16%, (p<0.001). Women had 0.2°C lower median BT-ED (p = 0.03) and 0.3°C lower BT-ICU (p<0.0001) than men. Older patients had lower BT in the ICU, but not in the ED. Fever was associated with a higher rate of sepsis bundle achievement in the ED, but lower nurse workload in the ICU.

Conclusions: BT-ED was more useful to prognosticate mortality than BT-ICU. Despite better prognosis in patients with elevated BT, fever was associated with higher quality of care in the ED. Future studies should assess how BT-ED can be used to improve triage of infected patients, assigning higher priority to patients with low-grade/no fever and vice versa. Patients with at/below median BT in both ED and ICU have the highest mortality and should receive special attention. Different BT according to sex and age also needs further study.