Accidental Hypothermia in a Swiss Alpine Trauma Centre-Not an Alpine Problem.

Habegger, Katrin; Brechbühler, Simon; Vogt, Karin; Lienert, Jasmin S; Engelhardt, Bianca M; Müller, Martin; Exadaktylos, Aristomenis K; Brodmann Maeder, Monika (2022). Accidental Hypothermia in a Swiss Alpine Trauma Centre-Not an Alpine Problem. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(17) MDPI 10.3390/ijerph191710735

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BACKGROUND

Research in accidental hypothermia focuses on trauma patients, patients exposed to cold environments or patients after drowning but rarely on hypothermia in combination with intoxications or on medical or neurological issues. The aim of this retrospective single-centre cohort study was to define the aetiologies, severity and relative incidences of accidental hypothermia, methods of measuring temperature and in-hospital mortality.

METHODS

The study included patients ≥18 years with a documented body temperature ≤35 °C who were admitted to the emergency department (ED) of the University Hospital in Bern between 2000 and 2019.

RESULTS

439 cases were included, corresponding to 0.32 per 1000 ED visits. Median age was 55 years (IQR 39-70). A total of 167 patients (38.0%) were female. Furthermore, 63.3% of the patients suffered from mild, 24.8% from moderate and 11.9% from severe hypothermia. Exposure as a single cause for accidental hypothermia accounted for 12 cases. The majority were combinations of hypothermia with trauma (32.6%), medical conditions (34.2%), neurological conditions (5.2%), intoxications (20.3%) or drowning (12.0%). Overall mortality was 22.3% and depended on the underlying causes, severity of hypothermia, age and sex.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine and Anaesthesiology (DINA) > University Emergency Center

UniBE Contributor:

Müller, Martin (B), Exadaktylos, Aristomenis, Brodmann Mäder, Monika Maria

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1660-4601

Publisher:

MDPI

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

14 Sep 2022 15:06

Last Modified:

29 Mar 2023 23:38

Publisher DOI:

10.3390/ijerph191710735

PubMed ID:

36078450

Uncontrolled Keywords:

drowning extracorporeal life support ECLS hypothermia mortality temperature trauma

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/172803

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/172803

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