The "golden hour" for heatstroke treatment.

Exertional heatstroke is a life-threatening event. It occurs mainly among the young healthy populations of athletes and soldiers. The severity of exertional heatstroke is directly correlated to the area under the temperature duration curve. Therefore, rapid cooling in the field has an enormous effect on prognosis. Four cases of exertional heatstroke are presented which differ in their outcome. We argue that there is a "window time period" within which simple and effective cooling techniques can determine prognosis.