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.
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