A recent study says, cooling the cardiac arrest patients, is life saving, reducing the risks of probable neurological damage. Cooling treatment must be ensued within hours, post the arrest for an effective and positive outcome.
Cardiac arrest occurs due to failure of the heart to contract and therefore the normal blood supply is arrested. CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) and defibrillation are the immediate step to be performed to revive the heart to begin function. The patient must be followed up with cooling the body temperature up to 92 degree F and later re-warming for up to 8 hrs.
Since the body and the brain are subjected to lesser blood supply and oxygen during an arrest, cooling helps the body to cope-up with condition and also demand less. Dr. Benjamin Abella of University of Pennsylvania Medical Centre explained that hypothermia is a very powerful treatment and application of this mode of treatment needs a combined effort of neurologists, emergency room doctors, cardiologists and nurses.
In an experiment conducted on 140 people, a whopping 92% showed no signs of any serious neurological disability. However, the risk for neurological damages in older patients was higher. It was studied that the risk of damage and death increased by almost 20% with each hour of delay in beginning cooling.
