Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism
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J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. · Jan 1990
Mild cerebral hypothermia during and after cardiac arrest improves neurologic outcome in dogs.
We previously found mild hypothermia (34-36 degrees C), induced before cardiac arrest, to improve neurologic outcome. In this study we used a reproducible dog model to evaluate mild hypothermia by head cooling during arrest, continued with systemic cooling (34 degrees C) during recirculation and for 1 h after arrest. In four groups of dogs, ventricular fibrillation (no flow) of 12.5 min at 37.5 degrees C was reversed with cardiopulmonary bypass and defibrillation in less than or equal to 5 min, and followed by controlled ventilation to 20 h and intensive care to 96 h. ⋯ Mean neurologic deficit and brain histopathologic damage scores showed similar significant group differences. Morphologic myocardial damage scores were the same in all four groups. We conclude that mild brain cooling during and after insult improves neurologic outcome after cardiac arrest.