Basic and Advanced Life Support in Hypothermia
Chapter from the book:
Sümer,
E.
H.
&
Nur,
N.
(eds.)
2026.
Environmental Health in Disasters: A Conceptual Framework, Health Services Management, and Multidisciplinary Approaches.
Synopsis
Accidental hypothermia is a condition that can occur both in our country and worldwide, depending on climatic conditions. In the event of a disaster, the large number of patients, the challenges of disaster-related interventions, and the fact that treatment algorithms differ from those for normothermic patients further complicate the situation. Since this is not a routine condition, it is crucial that the medical and rescue teams involved in the intervention receive training on this topic and that this training be repeated at regular intervals. Hypothermia, defined as a body core temperature below 35°C, is a reversible cause of cardiac arrest that, when managed appropriately, increases the chances of neurological survival by slowing cellular metabolism and oxygen consumption. Due to this physiological protection, the fundamental rule is that hypothermic patients should not be considered “dead” until their body temperature returns to normal or until the rewarming process is complete. In hypothermic patients, the processes—from diagnosis through intervention to the decision to declare death—differ from those in normothermic patient groups. In cases of hypothermia, measures to prevent heat loss, the rewarming process, and modified basic and advanced life support algorithms are employed. It is important to emphasize that the management of hypothermic arrest is not merely a resuscitation procedure but also involves the delicate management of complex thermoregulation. Survival rates in cases of hypothermia are higher than in standard cardiac arrest; however, this success depends on the meticulous implementation of a modified resuscitation protocol.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Ergün Haldun Sümer- Naim Nur; Serkan Çelikgün- İmran Şahin Düz- Sanem Nemmezi Karaca- Naim Nur- Nagehan Ekici Koşaroğlu- Nurcan Bağlam- İrem Akova- Şahin Yıldırım- İbrahim Furkan Sarkım- Zeynep Sümer- Yaşam Deniz- Nuriye Dinç- Yeltekin Demirel- Emre Sarı- Elif Alıcı Bıyık- Veysel Kenan Çelik- Yusuf Kenan Tekin- İlhan Korkmaz- Gülaçan Tekin- Ergün Sümer- Gülay Yıldırım- Sema Merve Sümer- Ferdağ Yıldırım