Heat stroke in hospital patients during the summer 2003 heat wave: a nosocomial disease

• Published in: La Presse médicale (1983) 2006-02, Vol.35 (2 Pt 1), p.196-199
• Main Authors: Ferron, Claire, Trewick, David, Le Conte, Philippe, Batard, Eacute Ric, Girard, Laëtitia, Potel, Gilles
• Format: Article
• Language: fre
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Female; France - epidemiology; Heat Stroke - epidemiology; Heat Stroke - mortality; Hospital Mortality; Hospitals, University; Humans; Inpatients; Male; Retrospective Studies
• ISSN: 0755-4982
• DOI: 10.1016/S0755-4982(06)74553-5

We investigated patients who died in our institution during the August 2003 heat wave, to determine whether some in hospital patients actually died of heat stroke. Records of all patients who died in our tertiary care hospital between 6-15 August 2003 were analyzed retrospectively. Heat stroke was considered the cause of death when the following criteria were met: body temperature higher than 40.5 degrees C, except if there was documented evidence of cooling before the first temperature measurement, central nervous system abnormalities, and a reliable history of exposure to high temperatures in a hospital ward. The number of patients who died in the hospital during the heat wave was compared with data from the previous year. Seventeen patients died from hospital-acquired heat stroke (19% of all hospital deaths). This condition accounted for a 25% increase in hospital mortality over the same period during 2002. Hospital-acquired heat stroke appears to be a nosocomial disease that was responsible for an overall increase in hospital mortality during the 2003 heat wave.