Evaluating Temperature is Essential in the Prehospital Setting

Evaluating temperature is essential in the prehospital setting
The measurement of patient temperature is, and has been, throughout the history of modern medicine, one of the four core physiological measurements that we collectively call "vital signs."
Over the past decade we've added the measurement of oxygen saturation (transcutaneous pulse oximetry, or SpO2) as the fifth vital sign and we hope that in the near future we'll add end-tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO2) measurement as the sixth vital sign.
Our review and discussion in this article will concentrate on the renewed importance, implications and technical measurement of a patient's body temperature, and explore how fever serves as an important and concerning finding.
What Is Temperature?

Temperature can best be defined as the temperature of the body when measured by either an infrared or conductive method. In terms of relating temperature to more meaningful physiological parameters, the parameter most closely aligned to temperature is basal metabolic rate (BMR).
BMR is essentially an estimate of how much oxygen we consume, and therefore the calories we burn, at any sustained activity level. The higher our BMR, the higher our temperature, and vice versa.

Source: JEMS Patient Care - November 2, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Joseph E. DiCorpo, BSC, MMSc, PA Tags: Patient Care Source Type: news