Antibiotherapy During Therapeutic Hypothermia to Prevent Infectious Complications
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2017-09-14
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Mild therapeutic hypothermia is currently recommended in management of cardiac arrests with
shockable rhythm. In mechanically ventilated patients who were resuscitated after
out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, mild therapeutic hypothermia side effects are conductive for
infectious complications and especially for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).
Despite high incidence of VAP and other infectious complications, it is not currently
recommended to use antibiotic prophylaxis on the responsible germs. Yet VAP incidence could
be decreased if an antibiotic therapy was systematically given to patient treated with mild
therapeutic hypothermia after a cardiac arrest. Several retrospective studies showed less
infectious complications but also decreased morbidity and mortality related to these
complications when antibiotic therapy was given early to patients treated with therapeutic
hypothermia after cardiac arrest.