The European Resuscitation Council Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest Registry: presentation and plans

Introduction

Resuscitative hypothermia after cardiac arrest has been shown to improve neurological outcome and has been added to the recommendations for the treatment of cardiac arrest patients of the Task Force of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation [1–3]. However, there is clearly a need for further investigations. A population-based international database, the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest Registry (HACA-R), is on its way to provide sufficient data to answer relevant study questions (see http://www.erchacar.org, http://www.erc.edu). It was established in 2002 under the lead of the ERC. The goals of the HACA-R are: to document information of all patients with cardiac arrest admitted to one of the participating centres; to set up relevant study protocols in close collaboration with the clinicians of the ERC to further improve guidelines on application of mild therapeutic hypothermia; and to formulate hypothesis on underlying causes of the benefits of mild therapeutic hypothermia on neurological outcome of cardiac arrest patients.

Methods

Protocols on baseline characteristics, details on cardiac arrest, out-of-hospital procedures and events, cooling and rewarming procedures, neurological and functional outcome scores at discharge, information on possible adverse events and death are documented.

Results

From March 2003 to May 2004, 301 patients across 16 sites have been enrolled. Of all enrolled patients 93 (31%) received endovascular cooling, 30 (10%) were cooled with other methods, 178 (52%) acted as control, 75 (25%) were female, the mean age was 60 (STD 15) years. A detailed analysis will be conducted when a sufficient set of patient data has been completed.

Conclusion

With the effort of a growing number of participating centres, the ERC HACA-R is expected to become a useful tool to further elucidate scientific questions regarding resuscitative hypothermia after cardiac arrest and to realize goals of the ERC.