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Targeted Temperature Management After Cardiac Arrest
Finding the Right Dose for Critical Care Interventions
Clifton W. Callaway, MD, PhD
Many clinical trials in critically ill patients do not detect im-
portant differences in outcomes between groups receiving dif-
ferent treatments. The trial by Kirkegaard et al
1
in this issue
of JAMA compared 24 hours
vs 48 hours of targeted tem-
perature management (TTM)
with cooling to 33°C among
355 patients who were comatose after out-of-hospital cardiac
arrest. The investigators found no significant difference in fa-
vorable functional neurologic outcome (defined as Cerebral
Performance Categories score of 1 or 2) at 6 months for pa-
tients treated for 24 hours (n = 176; 64% with favorable out-
come) vs 48 hours (n = 175; 69% with favorable outcome)
(difference, 5%; 95% CI, −5% to 14.8%). This absence of a
dose-effect relationship could cast doubt on the efficacy of
TTM, but it also should prompt examination of the core as-
sumptions of dose-finding trials in resuscitation.
Targeted temperature management changed post-
cardiac arrest care. For decades, survival of patients with res-
toration of pulses after cardiac arrest did not change. In 2002,
2 trials randomized 352 patients after out-of-hospital cardiac
arrest and reported improved survival and functional recov-
ery with a package of care that included mild hypothermia
(32°C-34°C for 12 or 24 hours) compared with care with no
hypothermia.
2,3
Implementation of therapeutic hypother-
mia, which came to be known as TTM, improved outcomes in
many locales,
4
but outcomes worsened with lower adher-
ence to TTM.
5
Most institutions adopted the temperatures
(32°C-34°C) and duration (usually 24 hours) used in these early
trials.
6
However, no clinical data existed on the optimal depth,
timing, or duration of hypothermia. In other words, what was
the optimum dose of TTM?
No particular depth of hypothermia is clearly superior for
TTM. In a recent systematic review, no superiority was iden-
tified for various temperatures from 32°C to 36°C.
7
The larg-
est trial reported similar excellent outcomes for 939 patients
after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who were randomized to
TTM at 33°C or at 36°C.
8
More rapid initiation of TTM is not clearly superior.
Six trials found no difference in outcomes for 2379 patients
after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who were randomized to
very early, prehospital initiation of hypothermia (<1 hour
after arrest) vs later, in-hospital initiation of hypothermia
(1-4 hours after arrest).
9
Observational studies of hundreds of
nonrandomized patients who received TTM have found no
consistent relationship between time-to-target temperature
and outcome with early (<4-6 hours) initiation.
10
Preclinical
data suggest that TTM initiated after 4 hours is no different
from non-TTM treatment.
11
In the trial by Kirkegaard et al,
1
patients had prompt initiation of TTM (<2 hours) and reached
target temperature at around 5 hours. The investigators also
found no differential effect of TTM duration among patients
who reached target temperature within 4 hours after arrest.
Is any duration of hypothermia superior? A systematic
review found no interventional clinical data to answer this
question.
7
Yet in one preclinical study, 48 hours of hypo-
thermia was superior to 24 hours of hypothermia for reduc-
ing neuronal degeneration.
11
It is thus biologically plausible
that longer periods of hypothermia may be clinically benefi-
cial. The clinical trial by Kirkegaard et al
1
is the first to
explore whether longer durations of TTM improve patient
outcomes. This pragmatic trial also made a reasonable
assumption that doubling the usual duration of hypother-
mia to 48 hours was a sufficient dose escalation to detect
any signal of benefit while minimizing adverse effects from
very prolonged hypothermia.
This trial has many excellent features in its design and
conduct.
1,12
Participating centers enrolled more than 98% of
Related article page 341
Opinion Editorial
334 JAMA July 25, 2017 Volume 318, Number 4 (Reprinted) jama.com
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