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Rationale:
- Cutaneous vasodilatation, an effect of alcohol, promotes convective and radiant heat loss and clouds mental judgment, placing
the person at an increased risk for prolonged exposure.
- Alcohol interferes with the generation of heat associated with the homeostatic mechanism of shivering.
- Alcohol-induced dehydration impairs heat production and peripheral perfusion.
- Multiple layers of clothing trap air and thereby protect exposed surfaces and insulate the body.
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Evidence:
- Many studies have confirmed that alcohol intoxication is a significant risk factor for accidental hypothermia. Alcohol impairs
behavior and judgment and facilitates heat loss by overexposure and cutaneous vasodilatation (1; 2; 3; 4).
- Several studies have found that in mentally impaired patients, the degree of hypothermia is related to clinical conditions,
the cause of the impairment, and the drug used to treat the underlying disorder (17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25).
- No prospective studies document a decreased incidence of hypothermia or improved outcome associated with educating caregivers.
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Comments:
- Patients with a history of chronic alcohol abuse also suffer from relative malnutrition, which further limits heat production.
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Albert Cheung, MD has no financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or health-care related organizations.
Dmitri Guvakov, MD, PhD has no financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or health-care related organizations.
Stuart Weiss, MD, PhD has no financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or health-care related organizations.
Wenjun Martini, PhD, editorial consultant, has no financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or health-care related organizations.
Deborah Korenstein, MD, FACP, Co-Editor, PIER, has no financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device
manufacturers, or health-care related organizations. Richard B. Lynn, MD, FACP, Co-Editor, PIER, has no financial relationships
with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or health-care related organizations.
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The information included herein should never be used as a substitute
for clinical judgment and does not represent an official position of
ACP. Because all PIER modules are updated regularly, printed web pages
or PDFs may rapidly become obsolete. Therefore, PIER users should
compare the date of the last update on the website with any printout
to ensure that the information being referred to is the most current
available.
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PIER is copyrighted © 2012 by the American College of Physicians,
190 N. Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106-1572, USA.
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Hypothermia
> Patient Education
