Abstract
Cardiac arrest remains one of the most common causes of death in developed countries. Those who survive may have significant neurologic morbidity. In the current decade, therapeutic medical hypothermia (TMH) has emerged as the only treatment that unequivocally improves neurologic outcomes in post ventricular fibrillation / ventricular tachycardia induced cardiac arrest. The role of TMH in other forms of cardiac arrest continues to evolve. We present the current status of medical hypothermia, recent patents and recent advances of this evolving therapy.
Keywords: Therapeutic medical hypothermia, hypothermic devices, Arctic Sun, endovascular cooling device, Cardiac arrest, neurologic morbidity, post ventricular fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, Cardiopulmonary Arrest, Acute myocardial infarction, Defibrillation, cytokines, adhesion molecules, plasma endotoxins, Asystole, Pulseless Electrical Activity, atropine, Post Cardiac Arrest Syndrome, International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, Neuroprotection, neurotoxic glutamate, GABA depletion, protein oxidation, lipid peroxidation, Brain Death, American Association of Neurology, cardiopulmonary cerebral resuscitation, cardiopulmonary bypass, Neuropsychological test, Bispectral index, Cerebral perfusion, Cognitive impairment, Somatosensory evoked potential, Neuron specific enolase, percutaneous coronary intervention, Apnea test, Austrian multicenter trial
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