Adding a Second Drug for Febrile Children Treated With Acetaminophen
Status:
Unknown status
Trial end date:
2008-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Fever is one of the most common symptoms in pediatrics and one of the most common reasons for
visits in pediatricians' office and pediatric emergency departments. Many parents consider
fever to be the most terrifying symptom.
Acetaminophen and ibuprofen are both effective and safe treatments for febrile children. In
order to achieve better temperature control and to avoid toxicity it has been suggested to
treat febrile children with alternating doses of acetaminophen and ibuprofen. Surveys in the
USA and Spain found that this practice is very common. However, The safety and efficacy of
such practice was never described.
Hypothesis:
Children who are still febrile after being treated with acetaminophen or ibuprofen will have
greater temperature decrement if treated with another drug (acetaminophen for those treated
with ibuprofen and ibuprofen for those treated with acetaminophen) than if treated with
placebo.