Conditions: Fever
Keywords: Fever reduction Fever burden intravenous ibuprofen
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 35
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief 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.

Detailed description:
This is an open-label, investigator initiated single center, randomized, prospective study. Subjects meeting enrollment criteria will be randomly assigned 1:1 to one of two groups:

1. Standard Care: Acetaminophen 650 mg via oral/nasogastric tube every 6 hours as needed for T\>=38.3 C (100.9 F) for up to post bleed day 14 or discharge from the Neuro ICU, whichever comes first.
2. Ibuprofen 400 mg/100 mL NS IV over 30 minutes, followed by a continuous infusion of 2000 mg/500 mL NS at 85 mg/hour (21 mL/hour) for up to post bleed day 14 or discharge from the Neuro ICU, whichever comes first.

Patients/surrogates will be approached for consent and randomized upon admission. Therapy will only be initiated once a patient becomes febrile (\>=38.3 C, 100.9 F). The use of temperature modulating devices will be permitted as per institutionally approved guidelines in those patients continuing to demonstrate a fever (T\>38.3 C, 100.9 F) with either therapy.

Arms:
arm 1: Patients assigned to the ibuprofen treatment group will receive a 400 mg IV ibuprofen bolus over 30 minutes followed by an infusion of ibuprofen at 85 mg/hr. arm 2: Patients assigned to the standard of care group will be given 650 mg of oral acetaminophen and continue to receive 650 mg of oral acetaminophen every 6 hours as needed to maintain temperature \< 38.3 C (100.9 F).

Interventions: intervention 1: Intravenous Ibuprofen intervention 2: Acetaminophen (Standard of Care)
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Ibuprofen 400 mg/100 mL intravenous (IV) over 30 minutes, followed by a continuous infusion of 2000 mg/500 mL at 85 mg/hour (21 mL/hour) for up to post bleed day 14 or discharge from the Neuro ICU, whichever comes first intervention 2: Acetaminophen 650 mg via oral/nasogastric tube every 6 hours as needed for T\>=38.3 C (100.9 F) for up to post bleed day 14 or discharge from the Neuro ICU, whichever comes first.

Protocol document: