Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Aug 2014
Review Meta AnalysisPredicting Neurologic Outcome After Targeted Temperature Management for Cardiac Arrest: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Targeted temperature management improves survival and neurologic outcomes for adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors but may alter the accuracy of tests for predicting neurologic outcome after cardiac arrest. ⋯ Simple bedside tests and somatosensory-evoked potentials predict poor neurologic outcome for survivors of cardiac arrest treated with targeted temperature management, and specificity improves when performed beyond 72 hours. Clinicians should use caution with these predictors as they carry the inherent risk of becoming self-fulfilling.