Fever without reason
If a fever occurs although it has already been diagnostically clarified that there is no organic cause, a psychologically triggered fever should be considered. For example, the fever can be triggered by mental stress. However, it should also be noted that in the first six months after the first occurrence of the fever, a diagnostic check should continue to be made to see whether a cause for the fever can still be found.
In general, however, it can be assumed that a fever that persists for more than six months without a cause should not be based on a malignant disease. Fever after surgery, also known as post-operative fever, occurs between the day of surgery and the tenth day after surgery. The body temperature rises above 38°C.
In most cases, an infection triggers the fever after surgery. Triggers are often infected venous accesses, urinary tract infections, wound infections or respiratory tract infections. Most often, the infections are caused by bacteria such as E. coli or staphylococci.
In addition to fever and depending on the site of infection, other symptoms such as coughing, shortness of breath or pain, for example when urinating, can occur. It is important to localize the site of infection so that therapy can be initiated. It is important that the trigger, for example an infected urethral catheter, is removed.
In addition, antibiotic therapy should be carried out in any case.In some cases there is no infection, especially during long periods of fever. It can happen that patients increase their own basal metabolic rate through constant stress in such a way that a general sub-febrile body temperature is reached. In this case, patients should be advised to change their life situation by taking stress-reducing and nerve-calming measures.
In very rare cases, patients even fake a fever. The basis can be the receipt of certificates of incapacity to work or the achievement of early retirement. In this case, the patient should have a fever curve plotted over a longer period of time.
The fever should be measured under the arm, in the mouth and rectally. The three values usually differ in that the level of the values measured in the mouth lies between the two other values. If this does not apply over the entire fever curve, a fake fever could be behind it.
In extreme cases of Münchhausen Syndrome, patients initially inflict wounds and injuries that are not visible and sometimes involve heavily soiled objects, resulting in a fever. For this reason a complete physical examination with inspection of the skin etc. should always be carried out, especially for patients with a corresponding psychiatric history.