TABLE 1.

Overview of the studies presented in the text.

Study design	Patients	Number of patients	Therapeutic intervention	Findings	References
Prospective uncontrolled interventional trial	Gonococcal infections	100	Hyperthermia chambers, warming to 41°C for 5 h, 3–4 sessions	81% cure rate in patients who completed the treatment; 24% did not complete due to non-tolerance, 12% did not complete due to comorbidities	Owens
					(Owens, 1936)
Case series	Community-acquired bacterial meningitis	10	Induced hypothermia (32°C–34°C).	6 out of 10 patients survived	Lepur et al. (2011)
Multicenter RCT	Community-acquired bacterial meningitis	98	Hypothermia group (32°C–34°C) vs standard care	Trial stopped early because of higher mortality in the hypothermia group (51% vs. 31%, p = 0.04)	Mourvillier et al. (2013)
Multicenter RCT	Severe sepsis or septic shock	436	Hypothermia group (32°C–34°C) vs standard care	Trial stopped early for futility. Higher mortality in the hypothermia group (44.2% vs. 35.8%, p = 0.07)	Itenov et al. (2018)
Multicenter RCT	Known or suspected infection receiving antimicrobial therapy	700	Acetaminophen group vs placebo group	Early administration of acetaminophen to treat fever due to probable infection did not affect the number of ICU-free days	Young et al. (2015)
Single-center retrospective study	Mechanically ventilated septic adults	76	Lower vs higher temperature group	No differences in use of vasopressors, parameters of mechanical ventilation or survival, significantly greater use of paracetamol, esophageal cooling and acquisition of MDRP in the low temperature group	Markota et al. (2022)
Pilot RCT	Mechanically ventilated afebrile septic adults	56	Forced-air warming of critically ill afebrile patients (1.5°C above the lowest temperature documented)	External warming had lower 28-day mortality (18% vs 43%, p = )	Drewry et al. (2022)

Legend: RCT, randomized controlled trial; ICU, intensive care unit; MDRP, multiple-drug resistant pathogen.