Resuscitation
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Therapeutic hypothermia improves neurologic outcome and survival in patients following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Endovascular cooling devices are commonly used to rapidly achieve and maintain hypothermia. The use of these devices may be associated with catheter related thrombosis. The objective of this study was to determine the risk of catheter related thrombosis associated with the use of an endovascular cooling catheter in patients referred for therapeutic hypothermia following OHCA. ⋯ The use of endovascular catheters for induction of therapeutic hypothermia is associated with a high rate of catheter related thrombosis. This risk appears to be abrogated with dose adjusted unfractionated heparin infusion.