文摘
Background The danger of heatstroke or accidental hypothermia is usually underestimated when risk situations are not appreciated in the clinical routine. This may cause preventable morbidity, e.g. postnatal or perioperative hypothermia or hyperthermia in adolescent athletes, in dehydration or in drug fever. Treatment Therapy includes not only restoration of normothermia but also correction of the pathophysiological derangement especially in hypothermia with suspended animation and in heatstroke with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Hypothermia or hyperthermia may also emerge as part of an underlying disease in which situation the optimal body temperature needs to be discussed. Normothermia appears to be rational if abnormal body temperature is associated with outcome, e.g. hypothermia in sepsis, trauma or cardiac failure and hyperthermia after perinatal asphyxia, stroke, intracerebral bleeding or head trauma. New evidence shows, however, that abnormal body temperature may also contribute to a better treatment outcome in certain diseases, such as fever for infection or active cooling for encephalopathy after perinatal asphyxia or after cardiac arrest.