Resuscitation
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Therapeutic hypothermia has been used for millennia, but in recent years was not in much clinical use due to an apparent high risk of complications. More recently, the benefits of induced therapeutic hypothermia have been rediscovered, mainly with the improvement in neurological outcome in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims. ⋯ Cooling techniques and recovery processes, as well as potential complications are also reviewed. Clinicians caring for a wide variety of critically ill patients should be familiar with the use of therapeutic hypothermia.
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Research in an emergency setting is challenging because there may not be sufficient opportunity or time to obtain informed consent from the patient or their legally authorized representative. Such research can be conducted without prior consent if specific criteria are met. However consent is sometimes required for continued participation and may bias the results of the study. ⋯ Exception from consent for emergency research should extend to review of the hospital record as the standard in emergency research. The only potential risk to patients associated with review of the clinical record after the intervention is loss of privacy and confidentiality. Appropriate safeguards can be taken to minimize this risk.
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Cardiogenic shock and cardiac arrest are common, lethal, debilitating and costly. Percutaneous cardiopulmonary bypass is an innovative strategy for treating these disorders that consists of rapid initiation of cardiopulmonary bypass and extracorporeal maintenance of circulation until restoration of an effective cardiac output. Multiple case reports suggest that percutaneous bypass is efficacious in patients with these disorders but these experiences have not been collated. Therefore, we have reviewed systematically the published experience with percutaneous bypass in patients with cardiogenic shock or cardiac arrest. ⋯ Percutaneous bypass is an efficacious intervention in patients with cardiac arrest or cardiogenic shock. Adequately-powered experimental studies of current percutaneous bypass technologies are required to demonstrate whether it is safe, effective and cost-effective.