Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Hyperthermia, also known simply as overheating, is a condition in which an individual's body temperature is elevated beyond normal due to failed thermoregulation.The person's body produces or absorbs more heat than it dissipates.
In a medical setting, mild hyperthermia is commonly called heat exhaustion or heat prostration; severe hyperthermia is called heat stroke. Heatstroke may come on suddenly, but it usually follows the untreated milder stages. Treatment involves cooling and rehydrating the body; fever-reducing drugs are useless for this condition.
Hyperthermia therapy (or hyperthermia, or thermotherapy) is a type of medical treatment in which body tissue is exposed to temperatures above body temperature, in the region of 40–45 °C (104–113 °F). Hyperthermia is usually applied as an adjuvant to radiotherapy or chemotherapy, to which it works as a sensitizer, in an effort to treat cancer.
Hyperthermia requires treatment. [2] Fever is one of the most common medical signs. [2] It is part of about 30% of healthcare visits by children [2] and occurs in up to 75% of adults who are seriously sick. [11] While fever evolved as a defense mechanism, treating a fever does not appear to improve or worsen outcomes.
Dantrolene, a muscle relaxant used to treat other forms of hyperthermia, is not an effective treatment for heat stroke. [25] Antipyretics such as aspirin and acetaminophen are also not recommended as a means to lower body temperature in the treatment of heat stroke and their use may lead to worsening liver damage. [5]
The current treatment of choice is the intravenous administration of dantrolene, the only known antidote, discontinuation of triggering agents, and supportive therapy directed at correcting hyperthermia, acidosis, and organ dysfunction. Treatment must be instituted rapidly on clinical suspicion of the onset of malignant hyperthermia.
The distribution of the therapeutic enzyme in the body (biodistribution) after these IV infusions is not uniform. [10] The enzyme in less available to certain areas in the body, like the bones, lungs, brain. For this reason, many symptoms of lysosomal storage diseases remain untreated by ERT, especially neurological symptoms. [10]
Targeted temperature management (TTM), previously known as therapeutic hypothermia or protective hypothermia, is an active treatment that tries to achieve and maintain a specific body temperature in a person for a specific duration of time in an effort to improve health outcomes during recovery after a period of stopped blood flow to the brain. [1]