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Wrap your loved ones in ICE PACKS to save their brain after cardiac arrest, new guidelines advise
Body cooling is now advised by medical professionals for cardiac arrest patients. Experts say it will limit brain injury from those who suffered a heart arrest.
Groundbreaking research claims cooling a body down into an induced state of hypothermia may reduce brain damage for patients after a cardiac arrest.
Over the years, researchers have been investigating the suspected benefits of lowering a person's body temperature down by several degrees.
A similar technique has become popular in hospitals as an effective way to save the lives of gunshot wound victims, freezing the blood flow so doctors can repair the damage without blood loss.
Now results from a new study have experts convinced this method could prevent brain injury in patients with critical blood flow conditions.
In a new set of guidelines, the American Academy of Neurology urges families to ask for their loved ones to be cooled using ice packs, from the standard 93.2 degrees Fahrenheit to 89.6 degrees.
The study was carried out by the Neurocritical Care Society.
Cooling happens by placing cold packs or special blankets on the surface of the body or internally with the use of devices that cool the blood inside the vessels.
During therapeutic hypothermia the body is cooled to bring brain temperature down and to slow the rate at which brain cells die once they have been starved of oxygen.
This is done to give surgeons precious extra time to help patients, potentially saving lives and reducing brain damage,
A cardiac arrest is when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating unexpectedly. They will lose consciousness and will stop breathing normally.
Unless immediately treated by CPR or other life-saving techniques, the person will die in minutes.
A heart attack may cause cardiac arrest but it is not the same thing. A heart attack is an unexpected interruption of blood to the heart.
Pictured: A body suit designed for therapeutic hypothermia
During this time the heart is still sending blood around the body and the person remains conscious and is still breathing.
More than 400,000 Americans experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest every year.
The survival statistics are bleak: approximately 50 percent of people who arrest are revived and only about 10 percent of these people leave the hospital.
Of those who do survive, around half suffer some level of brain impairment from the brain not getting enough oxygen.
When the brain does not receive blood or oxygen it results in damage. The longer it goes without, the greater the chance for permanent brain injury or death.
Romergryko G. Geocadin, MD, of Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said: 'People who are in a coma after being resuscitated from cardiac arrest require complex neurologic and medical care and neurologists can play a key role in improving outcomes by providing body cooling.
The Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology added: 'This guideline recommends that cooling is used more often for patients who qualify.'
The study looked at the outcomes of patients who were in comas after a cardiac arrest and had their body temperatures cooled down to 89.6 to 93.2 degrees Fahrenheit.
This use of therapeutic hypothermia was featured on the ABC doctor drama, Grey's Anatomy.
The practice also can prove beneficial to gunshot wound victims or trauma patients who have lost a lot of blood.
In instances like this, doctors don't have time to cool the body down gradually, instead they replace the blood in the body with cold potassium or saline solution.
This method is called animated suspension.
Although they are clinically dead, doctors will work to repair the damage and then begin to pump blood back into their systems.
While the body is in this state, the team will work to fix the 'structural problems' caused by a blade or a bullet.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...ng-method.html
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Originally Posted by Raine
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