Hemodialysis in management of hypothermia.

Hypothermia is defined as a core body temperature of less than 35 degrees C and is divided further into mild, moderate, and severe depending on the temperature level. Several active internal rewarming modalities have been described in the management of moderate-to-severe accidental hypothermia. We report a 73-year-old black man with underlying end-stage renal failure and ischemic cardiomyopathy who was admitted with severe accidental hypothermia (core body temperature, 24.9 degrees C) secondary to environmental cold exposure. The patient was resuscitated initially with warm intravenous fluids and peritoneal dialysis with warm fluids with an average temperature rise of 1 degrees C. The patient was switched to hemodialysis that brought his temperature from 30.2 degrees C to 36.7 degrees C during a 3.5-hour dialysis with an average rise of 1.9 degrees C/h. Hemodialysis is a rapid and efficient modality of rapid internal rewarming for moderate-to-severe accidental hypothermia.