Outcomes in Normothermic vs. Induced Hypothermic Post–Cardiac Arrest Patients

Past studies of therapeutic hypothermia have been criticized because control patients were hyperthermic as well as normothermic. In a retrospective chart review of 828 adult patients who had return of spontaneous circulation after witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and initial Glasgow Coma Scale scores <8, researchers compared outcomes between 467 patients who received therapeutic hypothermia at the treating physician's discretion and 165 patients who were spontaneously normothermic (temperatures <37.5° C for 36 hours post-arrest). Data were obtained from a prospective registry collected according to Utstein guidelines at a single center in Austria from 1991 to 2010.

Patients who received therapeutic hypothermia were more likely to hav…