Mild Therapeutic Hypothermia May Benefit Patients in Cardiogenic Shock

To determine the effects of mild therapeutic hypothermia in patients with cardiogenic shock after resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, investigators compared outcomes between 20 patients who were treated with hypothermia and 20 historic propensity-score matched controls who were treated without hypothermia in an emergency medical services system in Germany. Of 25 patients who met study entrance criteria (systolic blood pressure <90 mm Hg, Glasgow Coma Scale score <8), 5 were excluded from the analysis due to adverse events presumed to be related to therapeutic hypothermia, including profuse pulmonary or upper gastrointestinal bleeding and ventricular tachycardia. Hypothermia was initiated in the ambulance via rapid infusion of…