Oral Abstract O61 INDUCED THERAPEUTIC HYPOTHERMIA POST CARDIAC ARREST
Conference theme: Excellence in Practice Author S. Wallace1 1 Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust I was driven to create a protocol, a care based plan, that was structured and standardised in its approach to provide myself and other qualified clinicians a framework, underpinned by evidence and best possible research, to provide interventions for post cardiac arrest patients for use within the critical care environment. Research has suggested cooling post arrest from a cardiac aetiology may improve outcome and implementation of a protocol may decrease mortality rate . Induced hypothermia is defined as the controlled lowering of core temperature for therapeutic reasons .To successfully apply induced hypothermia, the clinician should have experience in using and adherence to a strict protocol, vigilance and pay attention to the prevention of side effects to the patient. A protocol was developed to ensure that through a structured approach, induced therapeutic hypothermic treatment guidelines and appropriate nursing interventions for post cardiac arrest patients within the critical care environment would be standardized, thus promoting quality of care for those patients.The creation of a protocol, a care based plan, that is structured and standardised in its approach will support practitioners in providing interventions for post cardiac arrest patients within the critical care environment. This will enhance improvement in the care given, clinical effectiveness and safety of treatment. Reference Information Arrich, J (2007) Clinical application of mild therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest European Resuscitation Council Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest Registry Study Group ERCHACA-R Critical Care Medicine, 35 (4), pp1041-1047 Bernard, SA, Gray, TW, Buist, MD et al (Feb 2002) Treatment of comatose survivors of out of hospital cardiac arrest with induced hypothermia New England Journal Medicine, 346 (8) pp. 557-563 Bernard, S, Buist, M, Monteiro, O & Smith, K (2003) Induced hypothermia using large volume, ice-cold intravenous fluid in comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a preliminary report Resuscitation, 56,pp913 Bernard, SD (2004) Hypothermia after cardiac arrest: How to cool and for how long? Critical Care Medicine, Vol 32 (3), pp897-899 Bernard, SA & Buist, M (2003) Induced hypothermia in critical care medicine: A review. Critical care Medicine, Vol 31,No 7, p2041-2051 Hypothermia Network (2007) [online] Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation after cardiac arrest. Acute treatment with hypothermia www.hypothermianetwork.com accessed Aug 2009 Institute for Health Care Improvements (2007) [online] www.ihi.org.
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Oral Abstracts