[Heat stroke in hospital patients during the summer 2003 heat wave: a nosocomial disease].

Objective: We investigated patients who died in our institution during the August 2003 heat wave, to determine whether some in hospital patients actually died of heat stroke.

Methods: Records of all patients who died in our tertiary care hospital between 6-15 August 2003 were analyzed retrospectively. Heat stroke was considered the cause of death when the following criteria were met: body temperature higher than 40.

[Emergency room deaths.].

3-MONTH RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS: OBJECTIVES: Determine the characteristics of patients who died in the emergency unit and assess the number for whom care was limited or withdrawn. METHODS: A 3-month single-center retrospective study of all the patients who died in the emergency room. Bivariate analysis was used to compare the clinical characteristics of patients who died despite maximum care (MC) with those for whom care was limited (LC).