Recent Trend in Therapeutic Hypothermia and Early-Onset Pneumonia in Cardiac Arrest

The ultimate goal of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is restoring spontaneous circulation and minimizing neurologic deficits. Since two human studies presented improved neurologic outcome and reduced mortality after cardiac arrest in 2002,[1,2] therapeutic hypothermia (TH) has been recommended consistently in the international CPR guidelines for post-cardiac arrest care.[3-5] TH improves the neurologic outcome due to attenuation of the inflammatory response in the brain.[1] On the other hand, TH can have systemic adverse effect such as high infection rate. Geurts et al.[6] emphasized in a meta-analysis of 23 studies that TH was a risk factor of both pneumonia and sepsis after return of spontaneous circulation in cardiac arrest patients.