Emergency War Surgery NATO Handbook: Part I: Types of Wounds and Injuries: Chapter IV: Cold Injury

Epidemiology Factors

United States Department of Defense

The military community responds to cold trauma according to accepted epidemiologic principles. The specific causative agent is cold. Moisture is closely related because it speeds the loss of body heat although it alone cannot cause cold injury. Cold produces injury by increasing the rate of body-heat loss. This rate is determined not only by the ambient temperature, but also by other factors such as moisture and wind. Moisture increases the rate of heat loss by conduction and evaporation, wind by convection.

A variety of environmental and host factors combines in the total causation of cold injury and influences the incidence, prevalence, type, and severity of the injury, though these influences vary from situation to situation. The most important environmental factors in cold injury are weather, clothing, and type of combat action.

Weather is a predominant influence in the causation of cold injury. Temperature, humidity, precipitation, and wind modify the rate of loss of body heat. Low temperatures and low relative humidity favor the development of trenchfoot. Wind velocity and low temperatures act synergistically, expressed as chill factor, to accelerate the loss of body heat under conditions of both wet and cold.

The type of combat action is apparently the most important environmental factor. Units in reserve or in rest areas have few cases. Units on holding missions or on static defense, in which exposure is greater, show a moderate increase in incidence. Factors which modify the incidence in relation to the rate of combat action include immobility under fire; prolonged exposure; lack of opportunity to warm the body, change clothing, or carry out measures of personal hygiene; fatigue; fear; and state of nutrition. In warfare, in which exposure under conditions of stress may be prolonged, adequate clothing becomes essential to welfare and survival.

Approved for public release; Distribution is unlimited.

The listing of any non-Federal product in this CD is not an endorsement of the product itself, but simply an acknowledgement of the source. 

Operational Medicine 2001

Health Care in Military Settings

This web version is provided by The Brookside Associates Medical Education Division.  It contains original contents from the official US Navy NAVMED P-5139, but has been reformatted for web access and includes advertising and links that were not present in the original version. This web version has not been approved by the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense. The presence of any advertising on these pages does not constitute an endorsement of that product or service by either the US Department of Defense or the Brookside Associates. The Brookside Associates is a private organization, not affiliated with the United States Department of Defense.

Contact Us  ·  ·  Other Brookside Products