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Induced hypothermia after hospital admission has been demonstrated to improve survival and neurological outcomes in patients resuscitated from ventricular fibrillation (VF), and is currently a class I recommendation of the American Heart Association (Journal Watch Cardiology Jan 26 2006). To find out whether earlier (i.e., prehospital) cooling might provide additional benefit to cardiac arrest survivors, investigators conducted a feasibility study in which patients who experienced out-of-hospital cardiac arrest were randomized to receive either up to 2 liters of cooled saline administered by paramedics, or standard care.
In the 63 case patients, mean temperature decreased by 1.24°C, compared with no decrease in the 62 control patients. The c…