Safety of therapeutic hypothermia in post VF/VT cardiac arrest patients

Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is a process of cooling a patient post ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF) cardiac arrest to 32-34 degrees C for 24 hours. This improves neurological outcome and is part of current guidelines. Hypothermia prolongs QT interval, which can precipitate torsades de pointes (TdP). We performed a retrospective review of all patients who received TH in our hospital over a period of 2 years to assess the effect of TH on the corrected OT interval (QTc) and any possible pro-arrhythmia. A total of 13 patients received TH. QTc prolonged in all patients with an average of 80.3 + 57.2 ms., and up to 109.8 + 80.4 ms in patients who received Amiodarone concurrently. No TdP was seen in any patient. We conclude that TH is safe, though careful monitoring of the OTc interval is advisable especially with concurrent use of QT prolonging drugs.