Factors associated with severity of accidental hypothermia: A cohort retrospective multi-institutional study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Frequently it is difficult to determine illness severity in hypothermic patients. Our goal was to determine if there are factors associated with illness severity of hypothermic emergency department (ED) patients.

Methods

Multi-hospital retrospective cohort. Consecutive patients in 24 EDs (1-1-2012 to 4-30-2015). Hypothermic patients (≤35 °C) were identified using ICD codes. We used hospital admission as marker of illness severity. Student's t-test was used for differences between mean age and temperature for admitted and discharged patients. We calculated the percent of patients admitted by factor, the difference from overall admission rate and 95% confidence interval (CI) of difference.

Results

There were 2094 visits with hypothermia ICD code. Of these, 13

SUBMITTER: Petrone P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7251493 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature