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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Randomized Controlled Trial
Teaching recognition of agonal breathing improves accuracy of diagnosing cardiac arrest.
Agonal breathing is present in up to 40% of pre-hospital cardiac arrests and is commonly mistaken as a sign of circulation leading to omission of bystander resuscitation. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that specific tuition on agonal breathing improves the accuracy of checking for signs of circulation as a diagnostic test for cardiac arrest. ⋯ This study demonstrates improved diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity of "checking for signs of circulation" by teaching CPR providers to recognise agonal breathing as a sign of cardiac arrest.
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To explore the rate of survival to hospital discharge among patients who were brought to hospital alive after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in different hospitals in Sweden. ⋯ There is a marked variability between hospitals in the rate of 1-month survival among patients who were alive on hospital admission after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. One possible contributory factor is the standard of post-resuscitation care.