Study of resuscitated in- and out-hospital cardiorespiratory arrest patients undergoing therapeutic hypothermia.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the characteristics of patients undergoing standard institutional protocol for management of resuscitated patients after a cardiac arrest episode, including therapeutic hypothermia.

METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of 26 consecutive patients admitted following cardiac arrest, between January 2007 and November 2008.

RESULTS: All cases underwent therapeutic hypothermia. Average age was 63 years, and the patients were predominantly male. Cardiac arrest event was out-of-hospital in 8 cases, in the emergency room in 3 cases, in the wards in 13 cases and in the operation room in 2 cases. The cardiac arrest rhythm was ventricular fibrillation in seven patients, asystolia in 11, pulseless electrical activity in 5 cases, and was undetermined in 3 patients. The interval between the cardiac arrest and return of spontaneous circulation was 12 minutes (SD ± 5 min). The time to reach the target temperature was 5 ± 4 hours, the hypothermia time was 22 ± 6 hours and time to rewarming 9 ± 5.9 hours. Fourteen patients died in the intensive care unit, a 54% mortality, and three patients died during the in-hospital stay, a 66% in-hospital mortality. There was statistically significant reduction in hemoglobin (p<0.001), leukocytes (p=0.001), platelets (p<0.001), lactate (p<0.001) and potassium (p=0.009), values and increased C reactive protein (p=0.001) and INR (p=0.004) after hypothermia.

CONCLUSIONS: The creation of a standard operative protocol for therapeutic hypothermia in post cardiac arrest patients management resulted in a high use of therapeutic hypothermia. The clinical results of this protocol adapted from randomized studies are similar to the literature.