Therapeutic medical hypothermia--a multispecialty approach.

Abstract

Cardiac arrest remains one of the most common causes of death in developed countries. Those who survive may have significant neurologic morbidity. In the current decade, therapeutic medical hypothermia (TMH) has emerged as the only treatment that unequivocally improves neurologic outcomes in post ventricular fibrillation / ventricular tachycardia induced cardiac arrest. The role of TMH in other forms of cardiac arrest continues to evolve. We present the current status of medical hypothermia, recent patents and recent advances of this evolving therapy.