Fever Prevention in Acute Vascular Brain Injury

To the Editor The recent INTREPID trial demonstrated the feasibility of fever prevention in patients with acute vascular brain injury using an automated surface cooling device at a target temperature of 37.0 °C but did not show superiority over standard care in terms of functional outcomes. The authors highlighted that they tried to include patients expected to require intensive care for at least 72 hours, as these patients were severely injured and may have benefitted from fever prevention. Certainly, fever in critical neurological illness is reported to be associated with its severity and longer intensive care unit (ICU) stays. However, I have 2 concerns regarding the inclusion criteria based on the relationship between fever, severity, and ICU length of stay.