therapeutic hypothermia

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Has or is anyone taking care of Post Cardiac Arrest and or Neuro patients with Therapeutic Hypothermia Surface Cooling Devices.

I want to know if you experience skin issues and if it's a common occurance.

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Specializes in CCU, CT surgery, Case Mgmt.

We use hypothermia at my facility post arrest and have not experienced any a/e to skin from the cooling system. If the skin pads are applied properly, there should not be an issue. We have utilized the protocol for about 2-3 years now without an a/e to skin.

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Specializes in CCU, CVICU, Cath Lab, MICU, Endoscopy..

We use coolgard3000 device which is intravascular, comes with a special TLC. Thanks to the good old technology!!:yeah:

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Yes we use the Arctic Sun at my facility and I have seen no issues with skin integrity related to the pads.

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I am a relatively new nurse and haven't seen a lot of therapeutic hypothermia used on our CVICU unit to date, but we did have one patient who was on an arctic sun cooling blanket at some point prior to her arrival on our unit. She had what appeared to be a rash on the entire posterior portion of her body. The general consensus from those who had cared for her was that it was from the arctic sun cooling blanket. I'm not sure if it was some sort of reaction to the adhesive or something else.

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Specializes in critical care, PACU.
I am a relatively new nurse and haven't seen a lot of therapeutic hypothermia used on our CVICU unit to date, but we did have one patient who was on an arctic sun cooling blanket at some point prior to her arrival on our unit. She had what appeared to be a rash on the entire posterior portion of her body. The general consensus from those who had cared for her was that it was from the arctic sun cooling blanket. I'm not sure if it was some sort of reaction to the adhesive or something else.

well the skin beneath it will be red from the skin's response to the cooling. is that what you mean?

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I would expect that, but this lasted for weeks after the arctic sun was removed.

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Specializes in CVICU, ED.

We use the arctic sun as well. So long as it is applied correctly, I have not seen any skin issues either. We did have one patient who had a balloon pump in for a while and ended up having a rash all down that leg and across her abdomen. She had an allergy to latex.

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Specializes in CVICU, CCU, Heart Transplant.

We use the Arctic Sun on my unit & no skin issues.

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Specializes in ICU, Postpartum, Onc, PACU.

We use it a lot and I've seen it do some amazing things. We use cooling blankets and a lot of the nurses use icepacks, but I've recently found out that that's not a good thing to do, and once in a while I'll see someone use iced saline, but I think I'll try to utilize that a lot more cause it works so well.

And when using cooling devices on the surface of the body, there should always be regular skin checks to hopefully prevent skin issues.:-P

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