Heat disorders are not uncommon in the military society due to supposedly hard training to overcome the environmental conditions. Twenty-two soldiers with heat disorders were admitted to Chin Hae Naval Hospital June 1969 through July 1970. Hoping that our clinical studies on them contribute to a renewed understanding, the results are reported in summary as follows: 1) Heat disorders occurred with an overall incidence of 3.1 per cent during running in early summer. 2) Of the twenty-two patients, eight (37 per cent) had heat cramps, six (27 per cent) heat exhaustion, five(23 per cent) heat stroke, and three(13 per cent) had undetermined disorder. 3) Ten patients(45 per cent) were comatous, and this occurred most frequently(80 per cent) among those with heat stroke. 4) All patients were grouped into four according to their physical status on admission. Those with heat exhaustion mostly belonged to group I (good) or group II (fair). Those with heat stroke and heat cramps eomprised most of group III (poor) and group IV (grave). 5) Group I and II patients recovered within 12 hours; group III, within 12~24 hours; and group IV, required more than 24 hours of care. 6) One patient with heat stroke, graded V, expired with sudden hypothermia 15 hours following admission. Overall mortality of heat disorders was 4.5 per cent, and that of heat stroke 20 per cent. 7) The rest recovered uneventfully within 19 hours of average.
Chin ; Emergencies* ; Heat Exhaustion ; Heat Stress Disorders ; Heat Stroke ; Hope ; Hot Temperature* ; Humans ; Hypothermia ; Incidence ; Military Personnel ; Mortality ; Running

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine characteristics of health-related victims identified through the Surveillance System of Heat-related Illness (SSHI) based on emergency department (ED) visits. METHODS: Between July 1 and September 3 of 2011, 443 heat-related patients were reported by 396 of the 461 EDs participating in the SSHI. Heat-related illness included heat (sun) stroke, heat cramp, heat syncope, and heat exhaustion. A hot day was defined as a day above 30degrees C of daily maximum temperature in locations of provincial and metropolitan government offices. We used chi square test for identification of risk factors associated with Heat-related illness in the workplace and heat-related illness heat (sun) stroke. RESULTS: Heatwave, defined as lasting three or more hot days, occurred three times during this period. The daily average number of heat-related patients reported during the heatwave period was 15.7 per day, more than four times the usual rate. The daily maximum temperature showed positive correlation with occurrence of heat-related illness. Heat exhaustion was the most frequent cause (46.0%), with approximately 70% of all cases occurring between noon and 6 p.m. The number of people suffering from heat-related illness while outdoors was three times greater than that of those who experienced it indoors. Work-related occurrence comprised 56.7% of all cases. All six deaths occurred during the heatwave period and were work-related. CONCLUSION: Working conditions, outdoor activities, and old age may be associated with health-related illnesses. A surveillance system that monitors emergency room visits may be useful in assessment of adverse health effects of summer heatwaves.
Climate Change ; Emergencies ; Heat Exhaustion ; Heat Stress Disorders ; Heat Stroke ; Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Infrared Rays ; Korea ; Local Government ; Risk Factors ; Stress, Psychological ; Syncope

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of heat wave on emergency department (ED) visits due to heat related illness, we developed an ED based active surveillance system. We want to identify epidemiology of ED visits due to heat related illness and determine the effect of heat index on daily ED visits due to heat related illness. METHODS: We developed an ED based active surveillance system for adults who visited the ED due to heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat syncope, heat edema, and heat cramp. We collected demographic and clinical variables, risk factors, and heat index by standardized registry on the webpage. We operated the surveillance into 16 emergency departments in Daegu City from June to September 2011. We analyzed epidemiologic variables descriptively and assessed the effect of heat index on the number of daily ED visits by multivariate Poisson regression analysis. RESULTS: During the study period, 34 cases were registered and nine cases were heat stroke. Heat stroke patients were older, and had more unemployment status than those with other heat related illness (p<0.05). More ED visits due to heat related illness were observed during the danger period than during the cool period, classified by heat index severity (Adjusted odds ratio: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.33-2.23). Increasing heat index by one degree caused more ED visits due to heat related illness (Adjusted incident rate ratio: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.07-1.19). CONCLUSION: We developed an ED based active surveillance system and observed more elderly persons and lower educational level in patients with heat stroke. In addition, increase in heat index significantly affected more daily ED visits due to heat related illness.
Adult ; Aged ; Daegu ; Edema ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Epidemiology ; Extreme Heat ; Heat Exhaustion ; Heat Stress Disorders ; Heat Stroke ; Hot Temperature* ; Humans ; Infrared Rays ; Odds Ratio ; Public Health Surveillance ; Risk Factors ; Syncope ; Unemployment