Fever in the patient with hepatic cirrhosis: 6-month prospective study
Andreu García, M.; Barrufet Barque, P.; Force Sanmartín, L.; Solá Lamoglia, R.; Verdaguer Munujos, A.; Panadés Arán, A.; Arán Suau, R.
Medicina Clinica 84(11): 433-436
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-7753 PMID: 3990405 Document Number: 249515
A prospective study of 106 patients with liver cirrhosis (CH) is presented. Surveillance of fever was kept and an effort was made for establishing its etiology and the impact that its complications and mortality had on patients. A total of 49 patients (85.9%) among 57 patients (54%) in whom hyperthermia was noted on admission had a fever of infectious origin. These patients had a total of 59 infections; the most frequent were: urinary tract (42.4%) followed by sepsis (18.5%) and primary peritonitis (11.9%) is presented. 39 infections (66%) were community acquired and 20 (34%) had a nosocomial origin. Enteric organisms, especially Escherichia coli, were the predominant bacteria. No infection was demonstrated in 8 patients (14%) with fever. Fever appeared after gastrointestinal bleeding in 2 patients and in another patient a carcinoma of the liver was demonstrated. The origin of the fever could not be found in 5 patients. Complications were more numerous in those patients with an infectious fever than in those with a non-infectious fever than in those with no fever. Mortality was higher in the first group mainly because a significant deterioration of liver function rather than to complications of the infectious disease itself; mortality was 26.5% in patients with infectious fever, 12.5% in patients with non-infectious fever, and 3.5% in patients without fever.