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February 9, 2012
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Hands and Feet

Medical Author:
Ken Zafren, MD
Medical Editor:
Scott H Plantz, MD, FAAEM
Medical Editor:
Francisco Talavera, PharmD, PhD
Medical Editor:
Steven L Bernstein, MD

Cold Hands & Feet Overview

When your hands or feet (and sometimes other parts of the body, especially your ears and nose) get too cold, they can be injured or react in different ways.

  • The most severe cold injury is frostbite, which is true tissue freezing (ice crystals form in skin and other tissues of the body). Frostbite causes permanent damage to blood vessels and other structures. Frostnip is also ice crystal formation in tissues but only in the very outer layer of the skin. It causes no permanent damage.

  • Immersion injury results from exposure of wet feet (or hands) to cold temperatures at or above freezing. It develops over hours to days and damages the nerves and muscles. Like frostbite, immersion injury causes permanent damage.

  • Other injuries due to cold hands or feet are pernio, Raynaud's syndrome, cryoglobulin formation, and cold urticaria.

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Cold Hands & Feet Causes»
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Cold Hands and Feet - Causes

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Cold Hands and Feet

Hypothermia »

Hypothermia Overview

Hypothermia is defined as a core, or internal, body temperature of less than 95°F (35°C). The tragic tales of people falling into icy lakes are poignant examples of hypothermia. Anyone exposed to cold temperatures, whether for work or recreation, may be at risk of becoming too cold.

Hypothermia has been a military problem ever since Hannibal lost nearly half of his troops while crossing the Pyrenees Alps in 218 B.C. and has continued to plague military campaigns through both world wars and the Korean War.

Today, with the popularity of an expanding number of winter sports and increasing at-risk populations, hypothermia has slowly become a civilian, urban problem.

Hypothermia Causes

Normal body temperature is the reflection of a delicate balance between heat production and heat loss. Many of the chemical reactions necessary for human survival can occur only in specific temperature ranges. The human brain has a...

Read the Hypothermia article »


Read What Your Physician is Reading on Medscape

Cold Injuries »

Exposure to cold can produce various injuries that occur as a result of the human inability to adapt to cold.

Read More on Medscape Reference »

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