Discussing therapeutic hypothermia and the ‘Cool it’ study

‘Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) improves survival and confers neuroprotection in out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).’

This is a statement that is rapidly becoming a universally accepted position in acute and emergency healthcare worldwide. Surprisingly, there continues to be a slow uptake of the technologies on offer, despite the apparent patient benefit.

Following the publication of two seminal TH articles in 2002 (Bernard et al; The Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest Study Group, 2002), and the subsequent International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation recommendations in 2003 (Nolan et al, 2003), there has been a steady implementation of the therapy into intensive care units throughout the UK. This, however, has taken somewhat longer than what should have been reasonably expected.

A study performed by Bink et al (2010) conducted a telephone survey of all 247 intensive care departments within the NHS and found that the vast majority (85.6%) of departments are now using some form of TH in their standard care package following sudden cardiac arrest.