Day 04 : Read EBook 04 - Requirements for Human Life

5. Narrow Range of Temperature

5.1. Everyday Connection - Controlled Hypothermia

As you have learned, the body continuously engages in coordinated physiological processes to maintain a stable temperature. In some cases, however, overriding this system can be useful, or even life-saving. Hypothermia is the clinical term for an abnormally low body temperature (hypo- = "below" or "under"). Controlled hypothermia is clinically induced hypothermia performed in order to reduce the metabolic rate of an organ or of a person's entire body.


Some emergency department physicians use controlled hypothermia to reduce damage to the heart in patients who have suffered a cardiac arrest. In the emergency department, the physician induces coma and lowers the patient's body temperature to approximately 91 degrees. This condition, which is maintained for 24 hours, slows the patient's metabolic rate. Because the patient's organs require less blood to function, the heart's workload is reduced.


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