Swedish researchers are reporting positive outcomes in a study examining the use of a device called RhinoChill, which cools the brains of heart attack patients by pumping coolant into the patient’s nose during CPR. In patients where resuscitation efforts began within 10 minutes of cardiac arrest researchers found that 59.1% of cooled patients and 29.4% of standard care patients survived to hospital discharge; 45.5% of cooled patients and 17.6% of standard care patients were neurologically intact at hospital discharge. The results also suggest that the earlier the cooling is started the better. When cooling efforts were delayed, there was no significant difference in survival when compared to those who did not receive nasal cooling. During a heart attack the heart is unable to properly pump blood to the brain (and other vital organs) which can lead to subsequent brain injury. [via Medline Plus]
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Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.