What body temperature is considered fatal?

Answer 1

'The amount of time' at the sustained temperature is key, although people have succumbed to oxygen deprivation if the sudden heat increase uses up all of the available oxygen. Please be more specific, i.e: fatal to whom or what...

Answer 2

Life-threatening body temperature <77F (<25C); at this stage, apnea (inability to breath due to brain cells shutting down) and asystole (restricted metabolism secondary to temperature causing the heart to not beat) is fatal if not treated promptly.

There are many different causes of hyperthermia (elevated temp):

- Malignant hyperthermia- Rare disorder caused by general anesthesia; pts often attain a T>104F (40C), however, the muscle rigidity that causes the rise in the body temperature, is what causes fatalities: muscle cells rupture, spilling myoglobin into the blood stream and can cause renal failure (rhabdomyolysis and myoglobinuric renal failure.

- Neuroleptic malignant syndrome- Very similar to malignant hypethermia, however, caused by different medications (antipsychotics, antiemetics, aphematamines, cocaine, lithium); same progression of disease.

- Heat stroke is the most severe out of the enivronmentally induced hyperthermias, with temperatures >106F (41C). The overall feared complication is rhabdomyolysis, or destruction of skeletal muscle. THis then causes renal failure.

Skeletal muscle is vulnerable to thermal stress. Temperature >106 have a very high risk of rhabdo, while medicine induced hyperthermias usually cause rhabdo secondary to muscle rigidity.