Hypothermia for Cardiac Arrest in Paediatrics

Cardiac arrest is associated with a high morbidity and mortality in children and hypothermia therapy has the potential to be beneficial in children following cardiac arrest. We have a track record of both clinical and laboratory research of hypothermia therapy following cardiac arrest at the Hospital for Sick Children and have completed a 3-site randomized controlled pilot study of hypothermia therapy following cardiac arrest in children funded by The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. This protocol was used to develop the protocol for the THAPCA trials (see 2 manuscripts published Moler et al NEJM 2015 and 2017 and multiple other manuscripts). Hypothermia therapy, compared to active maintenance of normothermia, had no beneficial effect on functional outcome or mortality in children with out-of-hospital or in-hospital cardiac arrest.