Targeted temperature management after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in three young patients

Objective: We present the use of targeted temperature management in a tertiary-level intensive care unit, in three patients who experienced an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Case report: Three young patients experienced an out-of-hospital non-coronary cardiac arrest. The causes of the cardiac arrest were: Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome, drug overdose and long-QT syndrome. All patients were resuscitated according to the advanced cardiac life support guidelines, and treated with targeted temperature management, with a target temperature of 33°C for 24 hours. After completion of targeted temperature management, all the patients regained full consciousness and were discharged from hospital without any neurological sequelae.

Conclusion: Targeted temperature management may improve survival and neurological outcome in patients after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.