Rewarming shock (also known as rewarming collapse) has been described as a drop in
blood pressure
Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure of circulating blood against the walls of blood vessels. Most of this pressure results from the heart pumping blood through the circulatory system. When used without qualification, the term "blood pressure" r ...
following the warming of a person who is
very cold.
The real cause of this rewarming shock is unknown.
There was a theoretical concern that external rewarming rather than internal rewarming may increase the risk.
These concerns were partly believed to be due to
afterdrop Afterdrop is a continued cooling of a patient's core temperature during the initial stages of rewarming from hypothermia.
Afterdrop is attributed to the return of cold blood to extremities from the core due to peripheral vasodilatation, thus causin ...
, a situation detected during laboratory experiments where there is a continued decrease in core temperature after rewarming has been started.
[ Recent studies have not supported these concerns, and problems are not found with active external rewarming.]
References
Medical emergencies
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