Therapeutic hypothermia in the treatment of patients after sudden cardiac arrest – narrative review

Therapeutic hypothermia is one of the few interventions that improves survival after sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) with good neurological outcome. Nowadays, mild therapeutic hypothermia (MTH) is well-documented method in emergency medicine.Current guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation recommend this method in patients after the return of spontaneous circulation. Low temperature causes some adaptive responses, e.g. a protective effect in the central nervous system (CNS) and, consequently, neurological status. As a therapeutic method, it is usually applied as mild therapeutic hypothermia (MTH, 35-32oC). An analysis of the literature revealed a relatively increasing trend in terms of popularity and implementation. However, reports over the last year clearly show that this method is being used very cautiously and insufficiently in Poland, as our country paled in comparison to other European countries in terms of recent use. This is of particular concern as instances where the MTH method has been used indicate effectiveness in patients after SCA