Abstract
Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) involves oral supplementation with water and electrolytes to improve and treat dehydration. In the guidelines published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2003, ORT is recommended for mild to moderate dehydration in children. In Japan, ORT started being widely used clinically in the 2000s, also for treating chronic dehydration in elderly people because of insufficient liquid and food intake. ORT is also used in the field of occupational health, such as during labor in hot environments; in the sports arena for runners, sumo wrestlers, and others who exercise in the heat; in perioperative care as a substitute for postoperative transfusion; and in emergency medicine to treat heatstroke. In particular, the clinical guidelines for heatstroke published by the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine recommend ORT for dehydrated heatstroke patients. In the future, it is expected that administering ORT in the early stages of heatstroke will stop the progression of heatstroke and prevent organ damage caused by this disorder.
