A Case of Severe Hypothermia with Cerebral Hemorrhage.
- Author:
Soon Mee CHUNG
1
;
Tae Kyung KIM
;
In Byung KIM
;
Kyung Hwan KIM
Author Information
1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Ilsan Paik Hospital, Inje University, Goyang, Korea. smchung@ilsanpaik.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Case Report
- Keywords:
Hypothermia;
Alcohol intoxication;
Cerebral hemorrhage
- MeSH:
Adult;
Body Temperature;
Central Nervous System;
Cerebral Hemorrhage*;
Emergencies;
Emergency Service, Hospital;
Freezing;
Humans;
Hypothermia*;
Intensive Care Units;
Intracranial Hemorrhages;
Male;
Rewarming;
Shock;
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
- From:Journal of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine
2002;13(1):97-101
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
Hypothermia is not an uncommon condition that emergency physicians meet in their emergency department services. Most cases involve mild hypothermia and are rewarmed well without any complication or sequelae. Hypothermia is well known to be correlated with drug intoxication, such as with alcohol. Since alcohol adds to the suppressive effect on central nervous system due to hypothermia, most intoxicated patients are so deeply drunk that they look comatous. We report the case of a 41-year old male drunk and semi-comatous and who had been left in his car for more than 12 hours on a freezing cold night. He arrived at our emergency department with a body temperature of 27.3degrees C. The patient was warmed with active rewarming, and during the procedure, the patient appeared markedly hypertensive, instead of showing rewarming shock. After initial stabilization the patient was taken for a cerebral CT scan and was found to have a large amount of intracranial hemorrhage. He was treated conservatively in the intensive care unit and was discharged as a hopeless case.
