Therapeutic Hypothermia After Exsanguination

Abstract

Therapeutic hypothermia has been shown to be effective in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, and use of this therapy has been expanded to involve in-hospital cardiac arrest. The utility of hypothermia in cardiac arrest after hemorrhage is not known. We describe a case of successful neurological and functional outcome after in-hospital pulseless electrical activity arrest secondary to exsanguination from an internal carotid artery rupture. Therapeutic hypothermia by surface cooling was initiated after acute control of the bleeding source, restoration of circulating blood volume, and hemodynamic stabilization. We believe therapeutic hypothermia use will continue to increase for in-hospital cardiac arrests.