Clinical Description of Local Cold Injuries

Abstract

A number of particular exogenous and factors, which have been partly refered to in the last section play an important part in the cooling of a limb.In addition we would like to draw attention to the following special ponts:

Actual heat is lost not from the body surface but from the millimeter fine air boundary layer, which constantly surrounds the skin like a fine , protective coat. Within this boundary layer heat transfer only occurs via conduction, not , however, via convection. Only on the outside edge of the air layer is the movement of the air, which causes loss of temperature , effective. The area of the exposed surfaces is critical for the loss of heat , the difference in temperature between skin and air. between skin and inner tissue .the conductivity of the border tissue, especially with regard to moisture, wind speed, air pressure and the surface relief. It is wellknown that, when exposed to the cold, man and animals adopt a stooping position to reduce the surface area and prevent loss of heat.