EEG for Cardiac Arrest Patients Treated with Hypothermia

The main goal of this study was to determine the prognostic significance of continuous electroencephalography (cEEG) findings in patients treated with hypothermia (HT) after cardiac arrest (CA). Toward this goal, the authors conducted preliminary validation of an EEG grading system and determined the benefit of treating seizures detected with cEEG in this clinical setting. They reviewed case records from a time when all patients with out-of-hospital CA with ventricular fibrillation were treated with a consistent protocol of HT and mild sedation. Blinded experts reviewed cEEG findings during HT, rewarming, and normothermia (NT). The EEG scoring system included multiple well-established patterns that were graded as mild, moderate, or severe (…