Lowering Body Temperature After Cardiac Arrest

Hypothermia (lowering the body temperature to subnormal levels) after cardiac arrest became standard practice in adult and neonatal critical care in the early 2000s, but its benefits in children were unknown. To answer this question, University of Utah Health researcher J. Michael Dean, MD, and colleagues conducted two randomized trials (in-hospital and out-of-hospital) at 38 U.S. and international sites, comparing hypothermia with normothermia—maintenance of normal body temperature—after cardiac arrest. Over 4,000 children were screened and 624 participated in the trials. In both trials, researchers found no benefit from hypothermia versus normothermia. Continue reading → Lowering Body Temperature After Cardiac Arrest