Therapeutic hypothermia after prehospital cardiac arrest - Quo vadis? [Therapeutische Hypothermie nach Herz-Kreislauf-Stillstand - Quo vadis?]

Level I evidence supports the use of therapeutic hypothermia after prehospital cardiac arrest and ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia as the initial ECG-rhythm. Although the advisory statement to apply therapeutic hypothermia was made 2 years ago, the clinical implementation shows slow progress. This report describes the possible consequences of lacking implementation, especially in regard of the patient's neurological outcome. Different currently employed cooling techniques along with the most frequent side effects were described. © Springer Medizin Verlag 2004.