Post arrest hypothermia study says no!

The debate has been happening for a while now! Do we actively cool or not? Well, many guidelines have us pushing our patients for that deep hypothermia to below 33 degrees. Nielson in 2013, found that patient outcomes did not change with the maintaining normothermia when compaired to hypothermia.

So fever is bad, and we ultimately need to avoid it.

While the debate continues with adults, there has been little evidence with pediatrics surrounding this.

Until now!

In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Moler et al (2015) find that “in comatose children who survived out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, therapeutic hypothermia, as compared with therapeutic normothermia, did not confer a significant benefit in survival with a good functional outcome at 1 year”.

Here is a link to the abstract

This study showed there was a difference, however not significant. Perhaps a larger study would be required. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section!

References

Moler, Frank W. et al. ‘Therapeutic Hypothermia After Out-Of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest In Children’.New England Journal of Medicine 372.20 (2015): 1898-1908. Web. 17 June 201

Nielsen et al. Targeted Temperature Management at 33°C versus 36°C after Cardiac Arrest NEJM 2013;epub Nov 17, 2013