Cardiac arrest: Induced hypothermia

Definition

In 2002, two large, prospective trials demonstrated that mild hypothermia after resuscitation from cardiac arrest and maintained for 12 to 24 hours improved survival and neurologic outcome in patients suffering from VF/VT arrest. Additional studies have suggested that therapeutic hypothermia may be beneficial following respiratory arrest, electrical mechanical dissociation, and asystole, provided that it is initiated within 25 minutes.

Subspecialty

Cardiac Anesthesia

Related Media

Keyword history

74%/2010

Sources

Tintinalli’s Emergency Medicine. Chapter 18

PubMed

Hypothermia after Cardiac Arrest Study Group Mild therapeutic hypothermia to improve the neurologic outcome after cardiac arrest. N. Engl. J. Med.: 2002, 346(8);549-56
Stephen A Bernard, Timothy W Gray, Michael D Buist, Bruce M Jones, William Silvester, Geoff Gutteridge, Karen Smith Treatment of comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with induced hypothermia. N. Engl. J. Med.: 2002, 346(8);557-63
Mauro Oddo, Vincent Ribordy, François Feihl, Andrea O Rossetti, Marie-Denise Schaller, René Chioléro, Lucas Liaudet Early predictors of outcome in comatose survivors of ventricular fibrillation and non-ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest treated with hypothermia: a prospective study. Crit. Care Med.: 2008, 36(8);2296-301