Abstract

MORENTIN, B.; BIRITXINAGA, B.  and  PECINA, T.. Heat-related mortality in Bizkaia during the Summer 2003 heat wave: Forensic experience. Cuad. med. forense [online]. 2004, n.36, pp.13-18. ISSN 1988-611X.

During severe heat waves, like that experienced in the summer of 2003 in southern Europe, mortality can increase sharply, sometimes even acquiring epidemic proportions. According to the provisional official reports in the Basque Country there were 3 deaths by heatstroke. In this article we describe the experience of the Forensic Pathologhy Departament of Bizkaia during the heat wave last summer- Autopsy reports were reviewed. Two deaths were due to heat stroke (fatal hyperthermia), but neither of them had been included in the provisional official reports. Both cases were adult males with known risk factors: in the first one alcoholic liver disease and acute alcohol intoxication; and in the second one hypertensive cardiopathy and possible overexertion. In both cases there were external thermic injuries and rectal temperature was > 41ºC. The histological findings were nonspecific. In the first case vitreous humor electrolyte analysis suggested dehydration. This article shows the importance of information about rectal and ambient temperature in the diagnosis of heat stroke, because autopsy findings are nonspecific. The definitive diagnosis requires a valoration of all the information: medical, pathological and laboratory data, as well as facts of the circumstances of the death. This, also, proves the convenience of fluid information from forensic systems to health departments, in charge of the epidemiolgy and prevention of heat stroke in alarm situations.

Keywords : Heat-related deaths; Hyperthermia; Forensic Pathology; Mortality.

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