Fever and Acute Stroke - A Bad Combination

Though many people don't know it, the brain is fairly resilient and it is often able to bounce back relatively well  after a stroke.   I have seen people recover to near-normal shape from extensive strokes ,and even from other forms of severe brain damage.  Multiple factors can speed recovery, including adequate rehabilitation, nutrition, and prompt treatments. However, in-hospital complications after stroke can also slow down and sometimes even halt recovery.

Some of these factors include, infections, respiratory problems, and swallowing difficulties. For a long time it has also been suspected that fever can have a negative impact on recovery, and studies are slowly beginning to confirm this.

This is the case with a recent study by the Virtual International Stroke Trial Archive (VISTA) investigators, who compared the outcomes of ischemic stroke patients who were affected by high body temperatures in the acute period of their stroke.

The study  found that high body temperatures, (i.e., hyperthermia) defined as higher than 37.2 degrees Celcius, predicted a poor outcome.   It mattered when in the first week after stroke the high temperatures occurred, with later, rather than earlier, fevers leading to a worse outcome.

The results suggest that neurologists and other doctors treating acute stroke patients in the hospital should implement aggressive measures to suppress fevers and to cool down the body temperature in patients in the first week after stroke.