Timing and Outcome of Therapeutic Hypothermia after Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest A study published in 2009 aimed to evaluate the effects of the timing of therapeutic hypothermia treatments on the survival rates and subsequent neurological function at hospital discharge and also 6 and 12 months after the cardiac event. This study evaluated both the effects of the time which it took to reach the target temperature and the time during which the patient was induced into a mold hypothermic state. (Nielsen, 2009, p. 926-934)
Methods. This study was conducted on individual who had experience cardiac arrest and a return of spontaneous circulation who were admitted to an intensive care unit in an unconscious state (Glasgow coma score of less than …show more content…
This study was conducted form December of 2007 to December of 2012 with a total of 5,696 patients experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and being treated by King County EMS personnel. A majority of these individuals, 3,319 patients to be exact, were not able to be enrolled in this study because resuscitation efforts performed by EMS personnel were not successful. A number of other patients were not enrolled in this study because of various exclusion factors. This resulted in a total of 1,359 individuals being enrolled in this study, of which 583 individuals initially presented with ventricular fibrillation and 776 individuals initially presented with a cardia rhythm other than ventricular fibrillation. In patients with ventricular fibrillation, the core body temperature was decreased on average by 1.20°C upon administration of 4ºC normal saline while in patients without ventricular fibrillation, the mean core body temperature was lowered by 1.30°C after the initiation of therapeutic hypothermia protocols. It was found that the initiation of pre-hospital therapeutic hypothermia treatments reduced the time required to reach the target body temperature of 34ºC by more than one hour. Overall, the study found that pre-hospital cooling was not associated with either an increased rate of survival or improved neurological function at the time of hospital discharge (Kim et al., 2014, p.
Methods. This study was conducted on individual who had experience cardiac arrest and a return of spontaneous circulation who were admitted to an intensive care unit in an unconscious state (Glasgow coma score of less than …show more content…
This study was conducted form December of 2007 to December of 2012 with a total of 5,696 patients experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and being treated by King County EMS personnel. A majority of these individuals, 3,319 patients to be exact, were not able to be enrolled in this study because resuscitation efforts performed by EMS personnel were not successful. A number of other patients were not enrolled in this study because of various exclusion factors. This resulted in a total of 1,359 individuals being enrolled in this study, of which 583 individuals initially presented with ventricular fibrillation and 776 individuals initially presented with a cardia rhythm other than ventricular fibrillation. In patients with ventricular fibrillation, the core body temperature was decreased on average by 1.20°C upon administration of 4ºC normal saline while in patients without ventricular fibrillation, the mean core body temperature was lowered by 1.30°C after the initiation of therapeutic hypothermia protocols. It was found that the initiation of pre-hospital therapeutic hypothermia treatments reduced the time required to reach the target body temperature of 34ºC by more than one hour. Overall, the study found that pre-hospital cooling was not associated with either an increased rate of survival or improved neurological function at the time of hospital discharge (Kim et al., 2014, p.