Loading...
Investigators addressed the question of whether therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is beneficial for comatose patients after in-hospital cardiac arrest, using a large U.S. national registry. Among more than 26,000 patients resuscitated after in-hospital arrest, 6% received TH. Patients treated with TH were younger, had fewer comorbidities, and more often had a shockable initial rhythm than those not treated with TH.
On analysis adjusted by propensity-score matching, TH-treated patients had lower rates of hospital survival than did the non-TH group (27.4% vs. 29.2%) and less frequent favorable neurologic recovery (17.0% vs. 20.5%). TH was associated with worse outcomes regardless of whether the initial rhythm was shockable or nonshockable. Among pa…