J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2002 Mar;13(1):97-101.

A Case of Severe Hypothermia with Cerebral Hemorrhage

• Chung SM
• Kim TK
• Kim IB
• Kim KH

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.

Keyword

Hypothermia; Alcohol intoxication; Cerebral hemorrhage

MeSH Terms

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