What Is Drug Fever?

The fever caused by medication is called drug fever. It is a common drug-borne disease in clinical practice, and the drug allergy is the most common mechanism. Drug fever is different from general infectious fever, and its characteristics are as follows: If it is the first time medication, fever can occur after a sensitization period of about 7 to 10 days; drug fever that occurs after re-administration is rapid and is easily associated with medication. Related; drug fever is generally persistent high fever, often reaching 39 ~ 40 . However, although the fever is high, the general condition of the patient is good, and it is not proportional to the heat; the application of various antipyretic measures (such as antipyretics) is not effective; but if the allergenic drugs are stopped, sometimes the body temperature is not taken even if anti-allergic measures are not taken. Can descend on its own.

Basic Information

English name

drug fever

Visiting department

Internal medicine

Common causes

Fever due to the drug during the treatment of the disease

Common symptoms

Fever (or chill) fever, heat type includes relaxation heat, retentive heat, intermittent heat or slight heat

Drug fever etiology

Drug fever is the fever caused by drugs during the treatment of diseases. Drug fever is not uncommon in clinical practice.

Clinical manifestations of drug fever

Drug fever is often accompanied by drug rash, and there is also simple drug fever without drug rash. It indicates that the current chills (or chills) have fever, and the heat types include relaxation heat, retentive heat, intermittent heat, or slight heat. It may also be accompanied by general discomfort, headache, muscle pain, joint pain, lymphadenopathy, and digestive symptoms. Some patients may also develop rashes and angioedema. The rash has a polymorphic symmetry distribution, often accompanied by itching or burning sensation; types of rash include scarlet fever-like erythema, urticaria and measles-like erythema, fixed erythema, etc .; severe drug rash can manifest as exfoliative dermatitis. In severe rashes, the fever lasts a long time after stopping the drug.

Drug fever diagnosis

1. A comprehensive and detailed physical examination must be performed to treat fever, and comprehensive analysis should be performed through various auxiliary diagnoses. If it is "drug fever", there is no obvious infection focus.

2. Although the body temperature is above normal (mostly manifested as persistent high fever), the poisoning phenomenon is not significant, the mental state is generally good, and there is no chronic illness.

3. In addition to fever, often accompanied by a rash, which is more conducive to the judgment of drug allergic reactions. Antibiotic-induced drug fever is often not accompanied by a rash or only a mild rash. Body temperature returned to normal within two days after discontinuation.

4. If you are allergic to food or drugs, you should be especially alert to the possibility of drug heat.

5. During the course of applying antibiotics, if the condition has improved, the temperature has dropped or has returned to normal after the temperature has risen or the temperature has returned, the possibility of drug fever should be considered. If fever occurs after the use of antibiotics, because the infusion is mostly during the day, the body temperature of the patient will decrease at night, which is a characteristic of drug fever. This is the exact opposite of fever caused by infectious diseases. At this time, if the patient's original infection has been controlled and there is no evidence of new or secondary infection, and the total number of white blood cells is not high, there is no obvious leftward shift and toxic particles, or there is an increase in eosinophils, the drug is discontinued and the fever is high. If the rash decreases, the diagnosis of "drug fever" can be confirmed.

Drug heat therapy

The best treatment for drug fever is to discontinue suspicious drugs. Rehydration is beneficial for drug excretion and fever. Glucocorticoids can be used in severe cases, physical cooling can be applied at the same time in patients with high fever or ultra-high fever, and alcohol wipes are forbidden for those who are allergic to alcohol.