No Benefit from Therapeutic Cooling After Pediatric In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

The efficacy of therapeutic hypothermia (target temperature, 33.0°C) versus therapeutic normothermia (target temp 36.8°C) in improving outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in children is similar in clinical trials. To compare the efficacy of these interventions after in-hospital pediatric cardiac arrest, researchers randomized 329 children aged 48 hours to 18 years to either intervention (maintained for 120 hours) after in-hospital arrest.

The primary outcome was 12-month survival with favorable neurobehavioral outcomes. All participants had previously normal neurobehavioral assessment, received chest compressions for at least 2 minutes, and remained dependent on mechanical ventilation after return of circulation.

There were no betwe…