Sunday May 9, 2010


Q: Is Pregnancy contraindication (Exclusion criteria) for Hypothermia Protocol?


A: Yes

Standard exclusions for Hypothermia protocol:

• Another reason to be comatose (e.g. convulsive status epilepticus)
• Pregnancy
• A known terminal illness preceding the arrest
• Known severe pre-existing coagulopathy or active bleeding (relative exclusion, esp for patients on warfarin)
• No limit on duration of resuscitation effort; however “down time” of less than 1 hour most desirable
• Pre-existing DO NOT INTUBATE code status and patient not intubated as part of resuscitation efforts