In Clinical Science
CommentaryWith publication of the 2005 American Heart Association guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, "induced hypothermia protocol" after cardiac arrest has gradually become a standard of care. Specific local guidelines and care pathways were developed to help with implementation and to streamline such protocols. These protocols, based on the results of two randomized clinical trials (1, 2), can be paraphrased as induction of mild hypothermia (32-34 o C) for a period of up to 24 hours in any patient who has suffered an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; slow rewarming to normal temperature occurs thereafter. Continuous EEG monitoring in patients undergoing induced therapeutic hypothermia is also standard, typically initiated at the time of hypothermia induction and continued for up to 24 hours after the completion of rewarming (3,4). However, the role of EEG in prognostication after a hypoxicischemic event is not entirely clear, documented in the 2006 guideline published by the American Academy of Neurology as "generalized suppression to ≤20µV, burst suppression