Pre-hospital therapeutic hypothermia

A Czech study demonstrated effective pre-hospital therapeutic cooling of post-cardiac arrest patients using fairly modest amounts of intravenous saline at 4°C: the administration of 12.6 ± 6.4 mL/kg (1,032 ± 546 mL) of 4°C normal saline led to a tympanic temperature decrease of 1.4 ± 0.8°C (from 36.2 ± 1.5 to 34.7 ± 1.4°C; P < 0.001) in 42.8 ± 19.6 minutes. No ice packs were applied.

Before other emergency medical services adopt this, it should be noted that all these patients were managed in the field by emergency physicians who administered sedatives and neuromuscular blockers. It’s a European thing.
Pre-hospital cooling of patients following cardiac arrest is effective using even low volumes of cold saline
Critical Care 2010, 14:R231 Full text

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