Better chances of survival after cardiac arrest

Center of Excellence for cardiac arrest recovery

07/28/2014

Every year around 75,000 people in Germany are reanimated after a cardiac arrest. Only 5,000 of them survive. At the nationwide first center of excellence for cardiac arrest at the Berlin Charité, doctors want to further develop the therapy standards and make them feasible for smaller clinics. One of the most important measures is cooling therapy, which can prevent brain damage in resuscitated patients.

Better chances after cardiac arrest by lowering the body temperature
„At the heart of the treatment is the rapid lowering of body temperature and careful reheating after a few days“, Christian Storm, director of the Cardiac Arrest Center on the Charité Campus Virchow, told the news agency „dpa“. The body temperature of the resuscitated is cooled down to 32 to 34 degrees Celsius, so that a slowing of the metabolic processes for 24 hours is achieved. „After that, it is heated very slowly, at 0.5 degrees per hour“, explains Storm. „The number of patients who remained in a coma can be halved by this procedure.“ Then doctors of different disciplines will discuss further therapeutic measures. „Many of these standardized procedures can also be implemented in smaller hospitals. We want to achieve that“, so storm. According to a survey, the temperature drop is still in many smaller hospitals using ice bags. „This can be done more effectively through a water-flushed adhesive blanket or a filled with cold water plastic catheter in the bar.“

The Center of Excellence, which was previously the intensive care unit, treats around 150 patients each year. „In a center specializing in resuscitated patients, all partial stages of resuscitation and the subsequent treatment are coordinated, standardized and optimized. In particular, cardiologists and neurologists are directly involved in the co-treatment of these patients and an integral part of the center“, Storm is cited in a message from the Charité. „But also the training of doctors and nursing staff is an essential factor of our center, because only regular training of clinical processes as well as a targeted error management can improve the quality of the resuscitation and further treatment in the long term.“ (Ag)