Hypothermia and pediatric cardiac arrest

The survival outcome following pediatric cardiac arrest still remains poor. Survival to hospital discharge ranges anywhere from 0 to 38% when considering both out-of-hospital and in-hospital arrests, with up to 50% of the survivors having neurologic injury. The use of mild induced hypothermia has not been definitively proven to improve outcomes following pediatric cardiac arrest. This may be due to the lack of consensus regarding target temperature, best method of cooling, optimal duration of cooling and identifying the patient population who will receive the greatest benefit. We review the current applications of induced hypothermia in pediatric patients following cardiac arrest after searching the current literature through Pubmed and Ovid journal databases. We put forth compiled recommendations/guidelines for initiating hypothermia therapy, its maintenance, associated monitoring and suggested adjunctive therapies to produce favorable neurologic and survival outcomes.