Effects of pre-arrest and intra-arrest hypothermia on ventricular fibrillation and resuscitation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Hypothermia has been shown to improve survival and neurological outcomes for ventricular fibrillation (VF) cardiac arrest. The electrophysiological mechanisms of hypothermia are not well-understood, nor are the effects of beginning cooling during the resuscitation.

Methods and results

We hypothesized that inducing hypothermia prior to the onset of VF would slow the deleterious changes seen in the ECG during VF and that inducing hypothermia at the start of resuscitation would increase the rates of ROSC and short-term survival in a porcine model of prolonged VF. We randomly assigned 42 domestic swine (27.2+/-2.3 kg) to either pretreatment with hypothermia before induction of VF (PRE), normothermic resuscitation (NORM) or intra-resuscitation hypothermia (IRH). During

SUBMITTER: Menegazzi JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2720166 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature