Heat syndrome
Heat syndrome: Excerpt from Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition)
Heat syndrome may result from environmental or internal conditions that increase heat production or impair heat dissipation. The three categories of heat syndrome are heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke.
Causes
Normally, people adjust to excessive temperatures via complex cardiovascular and neurologic changes that are coordinated by the hypothalamus. Heat loss offsets heat production to regulate the body temperature. It does this by evaporation (sweating) or vasodilation, which cools the body’s surface by radiation, conduction, and convection.
However, heat production increases with exercise, infection, and the use of certain drugs such as amphetamines, and heat loss decreases with high temperatures or humidity, lack of acclimatization, excess clothing, obesity, dehydration, cardiovascular disease, sweat gland dysfunction, and the use of such drugs as phenothiazines and anticholinergics. When heat loss mechanisms fail to offset heat production, the body retains heat and may develop heat syndrome.
Treatment
For specific guidelines on treating heat syndrome, see Managing heat syndrome.
Special considerations
Heat illnesses are easily preventable, so it’s important to educate the public about the various factors that cause them. This information is especially vital for athletes, laborers, and soldiers in field training.
❑ Advise your patients to avoid heat syndrome by taking these precautions in hot weather: wearing loose-fitting, lightweight clothing; resting frequently; avoiding hot places; and drinking adequate fluids.
ELDER TIP Vigorous fluid replacement in elderly people or those with underlying cardiovascular disease may cause pulmonary edema.
❑ Advise patients who are obese, elderly, or taking drugs that impair heat regulation to avoid becoming overheated.
❑ Tell patients who have had heat cramps or heat exhaustion to exercise gradually and to increase their salt and water intake.
❑ Tell patients with heatstroke that residual hypersensitivity to high temperatures may persist for several months.
Pictures
Book Source Details
- Book Title: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition)
- Author(s): Springhouse
- Year of Publication: 2005
- Copyright Details: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), Copyright © 2005 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
More About Heat exhaustion
More Medical Textbooks Online about Heat exhaustion
Review other book chapters online related to Heat exhaustion:
Medical Books Excerpts
- Stroke
- "Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition)" (2005)
- [ read ]
- Stroke
- "The 10-Minute Diagnosis Manual: Symptoms and Signs in the Time-Limited Encounter" (2000)
- [ read ]
- Stroke
- "The 5-Minute Pediatric Consult" (2008)
- [ read ]
Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.
» Next page: Stroke (Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
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