[Treatment of severe, accidental hypothermia with a warm air bed]

Patients suffering from severe accidental hypothermia are by many authors recommended to be rewarmed by extra-corporal circulation. Some authors argue in favour of other approaches in treatment of severe hypothermia, as long as the patient has a sufficient circulation. One of these is rewarming using forced air warming. We rewarmed a patient with severe hypothermia using forced air warming. The patient arrived with a core temperature of 25.9 degrees C and had sufficient circulation despite of atrial fibrillation. The patient was rewarmed to a core temperature of 36.1 degrees C over seven hours. No other arrhythmias or complications were observed.