Nick Mark, MD 
How often do people receiving dexmedetomidine in the ICU develop fever?
1 in 1000
1 in 100
1 in 10
Answers please
Poll ended at .
Answer when we get to 100 votes
The answer is: a lot more common than you think!
One retrospective case series found fever occurred in 3-10% of ICU patients on dexmedetomidine!
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0310057X1704500613
Another retrospective cohort study found a 15% incidence of fever in those on Dex!
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33813941/
Drug fever due to dexmedetomidine appears to be both a dose and time dependent side effect.
Bottom line: Dexmedetomidine induced fevers are a horse 🐎 not a zebra 🦓!
Mathieu Desgroseilliers@nick
When the patient develops hyperthermia & on Dexmedetomidine, we must think of drug-induced hyperthermia, indeed!
There’s a dose-relationship between hyperthermia & Dexmedetomidine.
There seems to have dose threshold ~ 1,1 mcg/kg/h according to my clinical observation.
Which is in alignment with this article 👇
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33729724/
Always funny to down titrate DEX & see temperature ⬇️
Ajai Dandekar@nick even if you have no knowledge of the side effects of dexmedetomidine, the incidence of fever in people admitted to the ICU is much greater than 1 in 100