Hypothermia and electromagnetic rewarming in the rhesus monkey med./bio.

To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of using radiofrequency energy to rewarm hypothermic casualties.

Following hypothermia induction, monkeys were rewarmed using either a ventrally applied surgical heating pad supplied with 35°C water (control group) or a radiofrequency induction coil operating at 13.56 MHz.

• animal
• rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta)
• partial body: torso

Radiofrequency rewarming to 35°C typically required only 50 min, whereas an average of 137 min was required for heating-pad rewarming. Analyses of blood serum collected during and after hypothermia treatments showed elevations at 24 h in creatine phosphokinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (enzyme level determinations are a primary tool to assess possible internal tissue injury). These elevations were highest for the controls and lowest for the radiofrequency rewarming experiments.
It is concluded that the careful application of radiofrequency energy to the central core of the body can successfully be used for rewarming purposes and it is more effective than externally applied rewarming techniques.