title: Minimising delays in commencing therapeutic hypothermia after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: the importance of a multi-disciplinary team approach.
abstract: Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is now a well established therapy in resuscitation guidelines. We retrospectively analysed our first 18 months' data for all patients who underwent TH for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), measuring delays incurred during each patient episode, safety, and ICU outcomes. Sixteen patients received TH for OHCA. A mean delay of 248mins occurred following hospital admission to commencing therapy. Seven patients survived to hospital discharge with a 6 month Glasgow Outcome Score of 4-5 in 100%. A questionnaire evaluating 30 first responders' familiarity and knowledge of TH demonstrated poor awareness and knowledge, with most viewing it with low priority. TH is a safe and easy to achieve therapy, however in practice there are significant delays in commencing treatment.
authors: Specialist Registrar Acute Medicine, Department of Intensive Care, Medway NHS Foundation Trust Kent, ME7 5NY, UK.
authors: Viral Kumar
authors: VK
authors: Patel
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Hayden