Background
Body temperature, which is systematically measured and reported as a vital sign, contributes to maintenance of normal physiology and affects the processes that lead to recovery after illness. Intentional manipulation of body temperature has emerged as a treatment strategy.
One of the most common practices of targeted temperature management is to reduce body temperature to a “mild hypothermic state” (per the AHA guidelines is 33°C (91.4°F). for 12–24 hours and then slowly re-warm the body back to normal 37°C (98.6°F). The purpose of this is to slow the metabolic processes and the chemical cascade that occurs when the brain goes without oxygen for a period of time. Research has shown, that by reducing body temperature the brain may recover to normal function in approximately 60% of the patients treated. Therapeutic hypothermia, which lowers the patient's body temperature to levels between 32–34 °C (90–93 °F), is used to help reduce the risk of the ischemic injury to the brain following a period of insufficient blood flow. Periods of insufficient blood flow may be caused by cardiac arrest, stroke, or brain trauma. Non-invasively induced therapeutic hypothermia has been shown to reduce mortality of successfully resuscitated cardiac arrest victims by 35 percent and increase the chance of a good neurologic outcome by 39 percent.
Read more about this topic: Arctic Sun Medical Device
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)