Captured external expert commentary on this paper, strongest first. Original sources are linked where available.
“There is basic science, animal evidence, that supports the use of therapeutic hypothermia. But then the clinical implications for adult cardiac arrest are based on quite low-certainty evidence that is almost 20 years old. We might have jumped the [gun] to use therapeutic hypothermia a little bit too early. So I would say that today there is no hard evidence that cooling cardiac arrest patients in any category is beneficial.”
“The take-home message of the study is that although cognitive changes are common, the overall long-term outcome of patients with a [cardiac arrest] who survive to hospital discharge is quite good. Most of these patients are discharged home and report no problems with self-care, and a significant number are gainfully employed.”
“This trial, I would qualify it almost for us like the 'trial of the decade.'”
In unconscious survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest of presumed cardiac cause, hypothermia at a targeted temperature of 33°C did not confer a benefit as compared with a targeted temperature of 36°C. (Funded by the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation and others; TTM ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01020916.).
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Nielsen et al. (2013) studied this question.
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