Respiratory acidosis in hypothermic myxoedema coma.

HYMANS (1963) has recently reviewed sixty-eight cases of hypothermic myxoedema coma and added one further case. Of these sixty-nine cases only twenty have recovered. The mortality appears to be related to the severity of the hypothermia, only three cases having recovered whose rectal temperature was less than 90'F (32°C). Nordqvist et al. (1960) described respiratory acidosis associated with myxoedema coma but this has received scant mention elsewhere. We consider, as does Nordqvist, that awareness of the possible presence of respiratory acidosis in myxoedema coma may be life-saving. It is for this reason that we report a case of hypothermic myxoedema coma associated with severe respiratory acidosis.