TREATMENT OF FROSTBITE TODAY.

One of the surprising characteristics of frostbite is the large amount of tissue that can be saved—even when the hand or foot seems hopelessly frozen. The best chance of preventing crippling tissue loss comes when you are lucky enough to see the patient while the tissue is still frozen and can be rewarmed rapidly. Unfortunately, he is more apt to be seen first by someone not familiar with rapid rewarming, since it only recently became the accepted treatment for frostbite. Much of what we now know about frostbite was learned during wartime. During military campaigns, frostbite and the clinically similar immersion foot (which results when the foot is immersed in water for long periods) have reached epidemic proportions. Although immersion foot is uncommon among civilians, frostbite is still a problem in all but the southernmost parts of the United States. In five years, 54 frostbite victims have been hospitalized at Colorado General Hospital and Denver V.A. Hospital.