Hypothermia for Heart Attack Victims

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Since ACLS guidelines now recommends hypothermia for stemi patients that are unconscious with return of spontaneous circulation, then shouldn't all emergency rooms have the capability to initiate therapeutic hypothermia ?

Like many rural EDs, my ED is only 18 bed and doesn't have a hypothermic unit. That seems like bad news for anyone having a heart attack that gets transported to a rural ED.

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That's my hospital policy. We have a special cooling kit and protocol setup for spontaneous circulation.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Our ED placed tons of ice packs on these pts, once in the ICU we applied the cooling system and started the protocol..

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Specializes in ED.

I'd love to get the equipment, we have to fight with PACU for our BAIR huggers.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

While it's highly preferable to use a purpose-built cooling system, there have been times where I've had more luck with wet towels and a fan in both getting a patient to temp and keeping them in range, so it is possible to do with what you have at any facility.

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Specializes in ER, progressive care.

We have cooling blankets with a rectal thermometer probe. Along with that, we place tons of ice packs on the patient to help cool them down.

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

We use the cool guard,...but I'm in a larger level I trauma ED,...like someone else stated there is always ice bags and a temp foley!

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