Aggressive Fever Control With Intravenous Ibuprofen After Non-traumatic Brain Hemorrhage
Status:
Terminated
Trial end date:
2016-03-17
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Fever, defined as temperature higher than 38.3C (100.9 F), is common in patients with head
injuries and is associated with poor recovery after injury. The current standard of care is
to use oral acetaminophen (Tylenol) followed by a body cooling device. This method can
effectively reduce fever but results in a high rate of shivering. Shivering is stressful to
the heart and can further worsen brain injury. Methods to combat shivering have been
developed and are successful in limiting the stress in the majority of patients that use a
body cooling device. However, the drugs used to control shivering are sedating and may also
interfere with brain recovery.
The purpose of this study is to assess whether ibuprofen given intravenously is more
effective in combating fever than the current standard of care. Should results from this
study demonstrate that ibuprofen infusion is effective, a larger study will be conducted to
determine whether this aggressive fever control regimen leads to improved recovery after
brain injury.