A Prospective Analysis of the Effect of Therapeutic Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest

Overview

Therapeutic hypothermia has been shown to improve survival and neurologic outcome in patients resuscitated after ventricular fibrillation arrest. Few studies have examined whether therapeutic hypothermia is effective outside the research setting, or with other presenting rhythms. Our institution, a large community teaching hospital, instituted a therapeutic hypothermia protocol in November 2006 for all resuscitated cardiac arrest patients. The investigators seek to determine the mortality rate of our protocol and compare our complication rates with those of previously published studies.

The use of therapeutic hypothermia has been shown to have a beneficial effect on neurologic outcomes of patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest in a limited number of clinical sites. Based on available data, current recommendations from the American Heart Association include a level 2a endorsement of therapeutic hypothermia for cardiac arrest from ventricular fibrillation with persistent coma, and a level 2b recommendation for cardiac arrest from any other rhythm. To date there have been no formal studies presented that demonstrate an improvement in outcome when a hypothermic protocol is implemented in a community hospital. The investigators plan to prospectively collect data on patients enrolled in the therapeutic hypothermia protocol to evaluate clinical outcomes and compare these outcomes with historic controls, with the hypothesis that patients enrolled in the hypothermic protocol will have improved neurologic outcomes.

Conditions

Eligibility

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