The Present Status of Accidental Hypothermia in Japan

Abstract

The investigation was performed to clarify the present status of the accidental hypothermia in Japan. “Questionnaires on the death from cold and the hypothermia” were sent in 4 selected area, i. e. Hokkaido, Tokyo, Kanagawa and Yamanashi. Of the 2366 questionnaires sent out, 597 response including 30 casereport were returned. I) oncerning accidental hypothermia the obtained results were: 1) The accidental hypothermia was occurred due to a diseaster (10 cases), drinking (13 cases) or from various diseases (7 cases), and involved a greater number of male than female. 2) When core temperature was above 20°C at the time of discovery, the patients could be successfully treated. When core temperature was below 30°C, the patients could die due to hypothermia. 3) Rewarming, artificial ventilation, transfusion, administration of cardiotonic and other drugs were found to be effective treatments. II) Concerning senile hypothermia (accidental hypothermia in the aged), the following results were obtained. Eight of the 30 cases were aged above 60 years. 1) The senile hypothermia occurred as a result of disaster (2 cases), drinking (2 cases) and from various diseases (4 cases). No healthy aged individual encountered accidental hypothermia under conditions that were not dangerous for the healthy adults. 2) The social conditions of the patients were reported in 5 cases. The aged live with their family, and their economical status was considered average. The three patients needed the medical care, and only one patient exhibited urinary incontinence and dementia. The phenomenon of senile hypothermia occurring in the aged, who live alone under poor economical condition as seen in Europe and USA, was not found in the present survey.