News spotlight: Hope rises as body temperature drops with new cooling therapy
Nurse Leader Weekly, February 2, 2009
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Nurse Leader Weekly!
Hypothermia is a life-threatening condition rarely treated in the balmy climate of Palm Beach, FL, but hospitals there may soon be using it as a form of therapy.
City hospital representatives are investigating the use of therapeutic hypothermia after the state's Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council requested area hospitals offer it to treat heart attack victims. The therapy cools unconscious cardiac arrest patients' bodies to 32°C to 34°C for 12 to 24 hours following the return of natural circulation. This therapy has been shown to slow or avert the harmful chemicals that develop in the blood flow post-cardiac arrest from reaching the brain. Studies have found the therapy can reduce fatalities and brain damage in heart attack victims.
Therapeutic hypothermia is already provided in several U.S. hospitals and is endorsed by the American Heart Association, however, computer-regulated hypothermic therapy equipment comes at a price tag of about $30,000, a cost that may make it prohibitive for some facilities.
Source: Palm Beach Daily News
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Nurse Leader Weekly!
Comments
0 comments on “News spotlight: Hope rises as body temperature drops with new cooling therapy ”
Related Products
-
Strategies for Nurse Managers
Strategies for Nurse Managers is a 12-page monthly how-to newsletter that was created exclusively to help you save time...
-
Quality Improvement for Nurse Managers:
This book and CD-ROM clearly outline a nurse leader's role in quality improvement and offer simple instructions to improve...
-
Handoff Communication: A Structured Approach to Transitions in Care
During this 90-minute Webcast, our expert speakers will discuss the best way to implement a standardized approach to handoff...
-
Readmission Reduction Program
During this 90-minute audio conference, our speakers give you strategies to reduce your readmissions rate; CMS has targeted...
-
Proven Methods for Drastically Reducing CAUTIs
Join nurse practitioner Mikel Gray, PhD, PNP, FNP, CUNP CCCN, FAANP, FAAN, and chief of infection prevention and 2012 APIC...
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Topic: CMS, OESS post new security compliance review information, checklist
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- HIPAA Q&A: Answering service messages
- News and briefs: Oklahoma Osteopathic Association against residency bill change
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- QA:Coding multiple initial infusions
- State medical board will hear unprofessional charges against OB-GYN
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- Capturing all necessary codes for IUD insertion and removal can be challenging
- E-mailed
-
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Are your workforce members texting PHI?
- Don't let these sentinel events trigger falsely
- Arkansas woman convicted for HIPAA violation
- Q/A: Coding infusions to correct low potassium levels
- Q&A: Coding for protein malnutrition
- Q&A tackles coding questions about injections and infusions
- Joint Commission Center announces handoff communication solutions
- Inside best practice: Reduce patient falls with a stoplight
- Identify modifiable risk factors to prevent patient falls
- Searched