text: A prospective study of postoperative fever--a clinical epidemiologic study.
  During a 12 months period 693 patients undergoing surgical procedures were prospectively studied to investigate the etiology of postoperative fever. The overall rate of fever was similar for the three categories of surgical procedures studied. No cause of fever was found in 5%, 2.7% and 1.7% of patients who underwent clean, clean contaminated and contaminated surgical procedures.