Therapeutic hypothermia and temperature management
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Ther Hypothermia Temp Manag · Jan 2011
Should advanced age be a limiting factor in providing therapeutic hypothermia to cardiac arrest survivors? A single-center observational study.
As octogenarians represent the fastest growing segment of the elderly population and the incidence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) increases with age, the outcome benefit of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) in comatose cardiac arrest survivors is of great interest. The first randomized controlled trials of TH excluded all patients older than 75 years and there exists considerable uncertainty whether the positive findings from these studies apply to older patients. This is a retrospective study of all unconscious OHCA survivors from 2002 to 2008 treated with TH in our intensive care unit who fulfilled the Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest study inclusion criteria (witnessed, shockable OHCA receiving bystander-cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), interval from collapse to ambulance arrival <15 minutes, and return of spontaneous circulation [ROSC] within 60 minutes) but with no upper age limit. ⋯ Still, 54% of all patients aged >75 years achieved good outcome. Although age seems to influence outcome, we found that more than half of comatose OHCA survivors above 75 years showed a favorable outcome. Hence, our data do not support a limitation of postresuscitation TH based on age alone but highlights the need for more clinical trials of TH in the advanced age group.
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Ther Hypothermia Temp Manag · Jan 2011
Neuroprotection of Selective Brain Cooling After Penetrating Ballistic-like Brain Injury in Rats.
Induced hypothermia has been reported to provide neuroprotection against traumatic brain injury. We recently developed a novel method of selective brain cooling (SBC) and demonstrated its safety and neuroprotection efficacy in a rat model of ischemic brain injury. The primary focus of the current study was to evaluate the potential neuroprotective efficacy of SBC in a rat model of penetrating ballistic-like brain injury (PBBI) with a particular focus on the acute cerebral pathophysiology, neurofunction, and cognition. ⋯ However, these acute neuroprotective benefits of SBC did not translate into improved cognitive performance in the Morris water maze task. These results indicate that 34°C SBC is effective in protecting against acute brain damage and related neurological dysfunction. Further studies are required to establish the optimal treatment conditions (i.e., duration of cooling and/or combined therapeutic approaches) needed to achieve significant neurocognitive benefits.
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Ther Hypothermia Temp Manag · Jan 2011
Therapeutic Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest is Underutilized in the United States.
Little is known about the frequency of therapeutic hypothermia use after cardiac arrest in the United States. We, therefore, analyzed the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) to determine the prevalence of hypothermia use after cardiac arrest and patient and hospital factors associated with its use. Using 2007 NIS data, we identified adult patients with cardiac arrest using the ICD-9 diagnosis code, 427.5, while the use of therapeutic hypothermia was based on the ICD-9 procedure code, 99.81. ⋯ S. hospitals. We identified important patient and hospital factors associated with therapeutic hypothermia utilization. Efforts to increase generalized utilization of this effective resuscitation strategy are warranted.
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Ther Hypothermia Temp Manag · Jan 2011
A review of clinical trials of hypothermia treatment for severe traumatic brain injury.
Clinical trials of hypothermia treatment of traumatic brain injury can be divided into (1) trials designed to abort the biochemical cascade after injury-neuroprotection, (2) trials primarily designed to test the effect of hypothermia in reducing elevated intracranial pressure (ICP), and (3) trials with features of both neuroprotection and elevated ICP control. Three of the four clinical trials testing hypothermia induction after failure of conventional means of ICP control showed decreased mortality rate, though sample sizes were small and findings were not always statistically significant. Nine randomized trials have tested hypothermia as a neuroprotectant, inducing it from 2.5 to 15 hours after injury and continuing it for a predetermined period of time regardless of ICP. ⋯ All found improved outcome and reduced ICP. Based on these findings and the negative results of neuroprotection trials that extended hypothermia for a defined period of time, it is likely that the mechanism of protection in these combined mechanism trials was early control of ICP. This literature suggests the need for clinical trials with two distinct objectives-(1) testing hypothermia for ICP control when conventional means (sedation and paralysis, mannitol, hyperventilation, and cerebrospinal fluid drainage) fail and (2) testing early induction of hypothermia before hematoma evacuation individualizing the duration of hypothermia to the patient's ICP responses.
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Ther Hypothermia Temp Manag · Jan 2011
Management of febrile critically ill adults: a retrospective assessment of regional practice.
The aim of this study was to report on fever epidemiology and management strategies within a general population of critically ill patients. This was a retrospective cohort study among febrile patients (temperature ≥38.3°C) without acute brain injury admitted to one of four regional adult intensive care units (ICUs). There were 7535 ICU admissions over the 30-month study period. ⋯ Fever was most commonly infectious in origin. Treatment of patients with fever was a common and nonstandardized practice in this cohort of critically ill patients. This is likely due to lack of evidence in support of a particular temperature management strategy.