According to a recent study published in the journal Circulation, lowering the body temperature of cardiac arrest patients with "non-shockable" heart rhythms, was found to increase the chances of survival as well as brain function.
In order to protect the body following a period of insufficient blood flow, therapeutic hypothermia lowers the body's core temperature on purpose to a range of about 32° to 34° C (89.6° to 93.2° F) and this was brought by such events as a cardiac arrest, blood clot or stroke.
Therapeutic Hypothermia was typically used for those patients who failed to recover their consciousness after a return of spontaneous circulation of blood which generates into a cardiac arrest. Studies that have conducted before has shown that in conditions like in ventricular fibrillation- which usually take place when the lower chambers quiver and the heart is unable to pump any blood there are improved survival rates and neurological function - can improve chances of survival and neurological function in patients with "shockable" rhythms.
As per Medical News Today, a Cardiac Arrest takes place when the heart starts to malfunction and would stop beating until the blood would stop circulating through the body. And, without proper medication and adequate treatment, death can be the relative result in just a matter of minutes.
The risk of neurologic injury
According to statistics, the annual rate of mortality from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest kills nearly 250,000 Americans. Globally, the average survival chances for such cases is just 6 per cent but those who have survived are still at risk in acquiring neurologic injury which sometimes leads into a deep coma. Moreover, for those who survived but has fallen into a coma, about 20 per cent are awaken with a good neurologic outcome.
Consequently, Hypothermia can also oppose the effects of neuroexcitation and lessen the death of cells by maintaining the release of calcium and glutamate in the body.
