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.