CASE REPORT  NON-COVID-19 SECTION Open access

Italian Journal of Emergency Medicine 2021 April;10(1):42-5

DOI: 10.23736/S2532-1285.21.00071-9

Copyright © 2021 THE AUTHORS

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lingua: Inglese

Accidental hypothermia: “nobody is dead until warm and dead”

Fiorenza FERRARI ^{1, 2} ✉, Nicholas S. BIANCHI BOSISIO ³, Michele PAGANI ¹, Fabio SCIUTTI ¹, Silvia MONGODI ¹, Matteo BRAMBAT I ³, Francesca COLOMBO ³, Francesco MOJOLI ^{1, 3}

¹ Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Unit, IRCCS San Matteo Hospital and University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; ² Department of Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation, International Renal Research Institute of Vicenza (IRRIV), Vicenza, Italy; ³ Unit of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Department of Clinical-Surgical, Diagnostic and Pediatric Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

We described a full recovery from profound accidental hypothermia with cardiac arrest, in a patient of fifty-eight-year-old. The emergency medical service found the patient unconscious, in spontaneous breathing, on the floor of his home. In Emergency Room, he had a sudden cardiac arrest. Immediately, he received Advance Cardiac Life Support. As soon as we have ascertained a sever hypothermia, we started a re-warming strategy based on warm fluids infusion and by using forced-air device. After fifty-three minutes from the beginning of resuscitation, the patient underwent to return of spontaneous circulation. He made a full recovery at the Intensive Care Unit discharge.

KEY WORDS: Hypothermia; Rewarming; Cardiopulmonary resuscitation; Emergency medicine; Intensive Care Units; Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation