title: [Accidents during bathing].
abstract: Sudden death during bathing accounts for 10 to 15% of all out-of hospital cardiac arrests in Japan. Surveys in Tokyo revealed 1,085 victims of accidents during bathing transported by ambulance from October 1999 to March 2000. 53% of them were cardiac arrest and 25% were those who needed rescue from bath tub because of consciousness disturbance (rescued group). Clinical observation of the rescued group patients indicated they suffered from transient loss of consciousness probably because of elevated body temperature. The current hypothesis of the accidents during bathing is a unique type of heat illness exposed by high water temperature(41-43 degrees C). Geriatric population is vulnerable to the bathing induced heat illness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Keio University, School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Shingo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hori
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.forename: Yukio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kurihara
mesh_terms: D000059:Accidents / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017677:Age Distribution; D000818:Animals; D001494:Baths / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001831:Body Temperature / Q000502:physiology; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D006358:Hot Temperature / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan