FROSTBITE
Report #6655 11/20/95
It wasn't the Russians who defeated Napoleon in their War of 1812. It was the French surgeon general, Baron Larrey, who recommended that the French soldiers rub snow on their frost bitten hands. Rubbing snow on frostbite removes skin.
Baron Larrey noticed that the French soldiers would freeze their hands while they marched during the day and then rewarm them around the fire at night. The next day, they would go out and freeze their hands again. During warming, cells burst and are destroyed. Since most of the damage from frostbite occurs during thawing, never rewarm an extremity if you think that it will freeze again. The most effective treatment for frostbite is to warm the skin in water set between 100 and 108 degrees Fahrenheit. This is painful and allowing the temperature of the water to rise higher than that can destroy the skin, necessitating skin grafting.
Frostbite means that your skin is frozen. You have plenty of warning before that happens. Your normal skin temperature is around 90 degrees. As your skin temperature starts to drop, blood vessels close and your skin turns white. When the temperature reaches 59 degrees, your body attempts to rewarm your skin by opening the blood vessels, causing your skin to tingle, itch, burn and turn red. When this happens, get out of the cold. If you don't, the blood vessels in your skin will close down again and your skin temperature can drop below 30 degrees and start to freeze.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News