Predictors of long-term survival in patients treated with targeted temperature management after cardiac arrest
Abstract
Sudden cardiac arrest (CA) is a common cause of death in industri-alized countries. The incidence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is estimated at 350,000 to 700,000 patients in Europe every year.
The survival rate of OHCA used to be very poor, but advances in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and post-cardiac arrest care including targeted temperature management (TTM) have improved outcomes in selected cohorts of patients. Neurologic injury from cerebral hypoxia is the most common cause of death in patients with OHCA.
While the issue of OHCA is well described and the data are widely available, there is little evidence regarding TTM after in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA), and our knowledge is based mostly on the results of retrospective and observational studies. Whether certain subpopulations of cardiac arrest patients have greater benefit from TTM is being debated.
The aim of this study was to identify the independent predictors of long-term neurologically favourable survival in patients treated with TTM after CA.