Doctors from Peking Union Medical College say | Be careful of heat stroke in hot weather!

How hot is the weather? I bought shrimps from the market and cooked three of them at home. A man broke six ribs and had to run to the shade of a tree to lie down...Recently, patients with heat stroke have appeared in many places across the country, and even deaths have occurred. Liu Jihai, deputy director of the emergency department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, reminded that heat stroke is no small matter. Heat stroke is the most serious manifestation of heat stroke and early intervention is required. If you find yourself or others showing signs of heat stroke, you should quickly go to a cool and ventilated place to rest and drink mineral water. If you experience symptoms such as low blood pressure, collapse, and confusion, you must seek medical attention as soon as possible.

About the author: Liu Jihai

Deputy Director of the Emergency Department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Expertise: Hemodynamic monitoring of critically ill patients, trauma treatment and disaster medicine.

Who is more susceptible to heat stroke?

Heat stroke is a very common emergency in summer. It is directly related to the weather and is more likely to occur when the weather is hot and/or the air humidity is high. The human body has a certain self-regulation ability, but if you stay in such a high temperature and high humidity environment for a long time, you may suffer from heat stroke, especially the elderly, children, pregnant women and other special groups whose body temperature self-regulation ability is relatively weak. They are more likely to suffer from heat stroke when encountering hot weather.

What are the categories of heat stroke?

According to the severity, heatstroke can be divided into pre-heatstroke and heatstroke. Heatstroke can be divided into heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke according to different clinical manifestations. For the body, this is a continuous development process. If the initial mild discomfort can be discovered and treated in time, it will not develop into the most serious situation.

How to deal with heat stroke?

Let’s take a look at the corresponding identification methods and recommended treatment plans given by doctors for different situations of heatstroke.

Premonitory heat stroke

People with pre-heatstroke often experience symptoms such as fatigue and dizziness. If they can be moved from a high temperature and high humidity environment to a relatively cool environment in time and pay attention to hydration, these symptoms can be completely relieved and there is no need to worry. However, if it is not discovered and treated in time, it may develop into heatstroke.

Heat cramps

Spasms are what ordinary people call cramps. Human sweat contains a lot of water and electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, and calcium. If you sweat a lot in a high temperature and high humidity environment, you will lose a lot of water and electrolytes, causing muscle cramps. In addition to feeling dizzy and weak, the most prominent symptom of heat cramps is sweating a lot accompanied by muscle cramps, which are most common in the leg muscles, especially the calf muscles. Many athletes are prone to leg cramps when competing in a high temperature and high humidity environment. This is a manifestation of heat cramps.

When heat cramps occur, the key is to quickly transfer the person suffering from heat cramps to a relatively cool environment to rest, and at the same time replenish water and electrolytes, which is commonly known as mineral water, so as to effectively relieve the symptoms of heat cramps.

Heat exhaustion

If the above symptoms are not treated in time, the patient may enter the stage of heat exhaustion. The most prominent manifestation of this stage is a drop in blood pressure. The continuous loss of water and electrolytes in the body will cause a drop in blood pressure, which in turn leads to a deterioration in the patient's overall condition, but the patient's consciousness is still basically clear at this time. In heat exhaustion, the patient's ability to self-regulate body temperature decreases, and the patient often has a moderate to high fever, with a body temperature of 38°C~39°C. The previous symptoms of dizziness, fatigue and even cramps may also exist at the same time.

For heat exhaustion, oral rehydration alone may not be able to achieve sufficient results. At this time, you need to go to the hospital to cooperate with intravenous infusion to replenish fluids and electrolytes and other treatment measures, while also effectively reducing the temperature.

Heat stroke

If heat exhaustion is not promptly intervened and treated, the patient's body temperature will continue to rise, often exceeding 40°C, and the patient will become mentally disturbed or comatose, which will then develop into the most serious form of heatstroke - heat stroke. According to existing statistics, the mortality rate of heat stroke is about 60% to 70%. Because the body temperature of heat stroke patients is too high, in the most serious cases, brain cells will be damaged, which will in turn affect the central nervous system and may cause a series of serious sequelae.

The primary treatment for heat stroke is still cooling down. We need to control the patient's body temperature within an acceptable range to reduce the continuous damage caused by high temperature. At the same time, we should cooperate with other treatment methods to protect the patient's organ function as much as possible.

Content from: Liu Jihai, a doctor at Peking Union Medical College Hospital