American College of Sports Medicine Roundtable on exertional heat stroke--return to duty/return to play: conference proceedings.
On October 22-23, 2008, an ACSM Roundtable was convened at the Uniformed Services University (Bethesda, MD) to discuss return-to-play or return-to-duty for people who have experienced exertional heat illness (EHI) and to develop consensus-based recommendations. The conference assembled experts from the civilian sports medicine community and the Department of Defense to discuss relevant EHI issues, such as potential long-term consequences, the concept of thermotolerance, and the role of thermal tolerance testing in return-to-play decisions. Although the group was unable to move forward with new consensus recommendations, they clearly documented critical clinical concerns and scientific questions, including the following: 1) no uniform core definitions of EHI; 2) limited validated criteria to assess recovery from exertional heat stroke (EHS); and 3) inadequate ability to predict who may be predisposed to a subsequent heat injury after EHS. Areas of potential future research are identified.
O'Connor
Francis G
FG
Military and Emergency Medicine, Consortium for Health and Military Performance, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. foconnor@usuhs.mil
Casa
Douglas J
DJ
Bergeron
Michael F
MF
Carter
Robert
R
Deuster
Patricia
P
Heled
Yuval
Y
Kark
John
J
Leon
Lisa
L
McDermott
Brendon
B
O'Brien
Karen
K
Roberts
William O
WO
Sawka
Michael
M
D001831:Body Temperature / Q000502:physiology; D001833:Body Temperature Regulation / Q000502:physiology; D018883:Heat Stroke / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008396:Maryland; D005082:Physical Exertion / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012955:Societies, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000639:trends*; D013178:Sports Medicine / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States