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Cool Down: Please see our byline in ADVANCE for Nurses describing how our CCU team was able to use induced hypothermia to save a young girl's life.
State-of-the-art Unit Replaces Traditional Methods and is New Standard of Care in Saving Cardiac Arrest Patients
Brockton, MA – The Medivance Arctic Sun induced therapeutic hypothermia machine purchased by Signature Healthcare is the first in the South Shore area and has been used for several months now at the hospital. It is common knowledge that applying ice to an injury is therapeutic. A growing number of clinical data reports that lowering body temperature (91.4 – 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit) can limit neurologic damage in a wide range of clinically ill patients – those suffering from cardiac arrest, spinal cord injury, stroke, brain injury, trauma, and high fevers. By lowering the body temperature of a patient in a coma after resuscitation, the oxygen demands of the brain and organs are decreased, and cell death is slowed. To achieve lowered body temperature, critical care nurses use ice, water blankets, and injected saline.
While effective, the method is labor intensive and very difficult, requiring constant monitoring of body temperature. A significant advantage of surface cooling with the highly precise Arctic Sun is its ease of use. Its high-tech hydrogel pads fit like shorts and a vest, and are hooked up to a machine which monitors cooling temperature. Nurses can immediately implement patient cooling, resulting in rapid therapy when minutes count for saving patient lives and brain function.
According to a February, 2002 New England Journal of Medicine editorial discussing randomized clinical trial studies of induced mild hypothermia, the timing and duration are important; mild hypothermia should be initiated as soon as possible after a patient is resuscitated.
“Since purchasing the Arctic Sun machine in late June, we’ve already utilized it on several patients with positive effects,” said Kim Walsh, VP of Patient Services, Signature Healthcare. “We’ve been able to save lives with induced hypothermia in our critical care unit before, using the older method of ice packs and cooling blankets, but the machine is simpler and faster – we are able to begin lowing patient body temperature immediately, and monitor the drop precisely, ultimately leading to greater chance of successfully saving lives.”
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Rachel Labas
Media & PR Coordinator, Signature Healthcare
508-941-7657
rlabas@signature-healthcare.org |
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© 2011 Signature Healthcare | 680 Centre Street Brockton, MA 02302 | Phone: 508-941-7000 |
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