Core body temperature responses immediately after cutaneous thermal injury in rats.
Internal temperatures were continuously measured in rats that received 20% or 40% body surface area cutaneous scald injuries in 25 degrees C and 38.5 degrees C environments. In animals that received thermal injuries in the 25 degrees C environment, intraperitoneal, intraesophageal, and intrarectal temperatures rapidly rose to 40 degrees C within 5 minutes but returned to normal values within 15 minutes after injury. When 20% body surface area injuries were induced in a 25 degrees C environment, all of the animals survived. In the 25 degrees C environment, neither acute core body temperature elevations nor use of fluid resuscitation predicted survival. In contrast, in a 38.5 degrees C environment core body temperatures rapidly exceeded 41 degrees C with the 20% injury, and all of the animals died within minutes in spite of fluid resuscitation. These studies suggest that the ambient environmental temperature may significantly influence a thermally injured animal's ability to rapidly eliminate absorbed heat of injury and result in an elevated core body temperature, which may contribute to the immediate lethality of the injury.
Trop
M
M
Childrens Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114.
Tompkins
R G
RG
Schiffrin
E J
EJ
Carter
E A
EA
Burke
J F
JF
D000818:Animals; D001831:Body Temperature / Q000502:physiology*; D001833:Body Temperature Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D002056:Burns / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D005440:Fluid Therapy; D051381:Rats; D013696:Temperature; D013821:Thermometers; D013997:Time Factors