Cooling Under a Blanketrol System Versus Cooling With an Arctic Sun Thermoregulation System (CATS) for Neonates Undergoing Therapeutic Hypothermia.

Background Despite evidence suggesting improved outcomes in neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) treated with therapeutic hypothermia (TH), data on the impact of temperature variability during cooling and its association with clinical outcomes remain limited. Objective To compare the efficacy and ease of use of two different cooling systems, the Arctic Sun (Medivance, Inc., Louisville, CO) vs. the Blanketrol III (Gentherm Medical, Cincinnati, OH) on achieving TH, temperature variability, and clinical outcomes in neonates with HIE undergoing TH. Methods This study was conducted at the Baylor Scott and White Medical Center's Level IV NICU. The study employed a retrospective cohort design, comparing infants treated with the Arctic Sun device (from December 2020 to August 2021) to a historical cohort treated with the Blanketrol system (from January 2017 to November 2020). Both groups were evaluated for clinical characteristics, patients' outcomes, and ease of use of the cooling devices. Ease of use was assessed through a self-developed survey administered to NICU nurses. Core body temperatures throughout the cooling course were documented at four-hour intervals, including induction, maintenance, and rewarming phases. Results Twenty-two infants were cooled using the Arctic Sun system, and 44 infants were cooled with the Blanketrol device. Median birth weight and gestational age were comparable. There were no significant differences in one-minute and five-minute appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, and respiration (APGAR) scores. The Arctic Sun group had a significantly higher rate of maternal morbidities, including diabetes and placental abruption. Although the median temperature achieved with both devices was 33.5°C, temperature variability was significantly greater with the Blanketrol device (p = 0.03). Thrombocytopenia rates were statistically different between the groups (9% in Arctic Sun vs. 38% in Blanketrol, p = 0.001). Although the Blanketrol group had higher rates of disseminated intravascular coagulation (48% vs. 37%), hypercalcemia (23% vs. 5%), and subcutaneous fat necrosis (7% vs. 5%), these differences were not statistically significant. A nurses' survey on ease of use revealed a strong preference for the Arctic Sun cooling system. Over 85% of nurses found it easier to learn and set up and required less manual intervention than the Blanketrol device. Conclusions Gel adhesive pad-based TH is a potentially superior modality to traditional water-circulating cooling devices. These pads offer advantages in user-friendliness, improved temperature control precision, and potentially reduced adverse event profiles.

Use of the Arctic Sun™ 5000 targeted temperature management system to achieve rewarming during a prolonged hypothermic cardiorespiratory arrest.

Cardiorespiratory arrest due to severe hypothermia may require prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation whilst the patient is rewarmed. There are reported cases of successful resuscitation with good neurological outcomes after prolonged arrests and resuscitation up to 9 h. However, in the majority of these cases, extracorporeal life support was used to maintain perfusion and rewarm the patient. Here, we report a case of successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation lasting 6.5 h, following cardiac arrest secondary to severe hypothermia, with rewarming using an Arctic Sun™ 5000. The Arctic Sun 5000 is a targeted temperature management device which is conventionally used to prevent hyperthermia post-cardiac arrest. In this report, we discuss the reasons why the device was used in this case and the effects of severe hypothermia on cardiac arrest management. We believe that this is the longest reported successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a severely hypothermic patient without the use of extracorporeal life support.

Efficacy and safety of the Arctic Sun device for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy in adult patients following cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIM: The principal objective of this study was to carry out a comprehensive and thorough analysis to compare the safety and effectiveness of the Arctic Sun, a servo-controlled surface cooling device, with conventional cooling techniques for providing therapeutic hypothermia in adult patients who had experienced hypoxic-ischemic brain injury following cardiopulmonary resuscitation. METHODS: In order to achieve our goal, we conducted an extensive search of multiple databases including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, and ClinicalTrials.gov up to the date of July 30, 2021. We only included studies that compared the safety and efficacy of the Arctic Sun surface cooling equipment with standard cooling approaches such as cooling blankets, ice packs, and intravenous cold saline for treating comatose adult patients who had recovered after experiencing cardiac arrest. We evaluated various outcomes, including all-cause mortality, good neurological outcome at 1 month, and the occurrence of adverse effects such as infections, shock, and bleeding. We employed a random-effects meta-analysis to estimate the odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for dichotomous outcomes. RESULTS: One hundred and fourteen records were identified through our search; however, only three studies met our eligibility criteria, resulting in overall 187 patients incorporated in the meta-analysis. The findings indicated no significant difference in mortality rates among the Arctic Sun device and conventional cooling techniques (OR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.34-1.19; P = 0.16; I2 = 0%). In addition, we found no significant difference in occurrence of good neurological outcomes (OR: 1.74; 95% CI: 0.94-3.25; P = 0.08; I2 = 0%) between the two cooling methods. However, the application of the Arctic Sun device was associated with increased incidence of infections compared to standard cooling methods (OR: 2.46; 95% CI: 1.18-5.11; P = 0.02; I2 = 0%). While no significant difference occurred in the incidence of shock (OR: 0.29; 95% CI: 0.07-1.18; P = 0.08; I2 = 40%), the use of the Arctic Sun device was linked to significantly fewer bleeding complications compared to standard cooling methods (OR: 0.11; 95% CI: 0.02-0.79; P = 0.03; I2 = 0%). CONCLUSIONS: After analyzing the results of our meta-analysis, we concluded that the use of the Arctic Sun device for targeted temperature management following cardiopulmonary resuscitation did not result in significant differences in mortality rates or improve neurological outcomes when compared to standard cooling techniques.

Feasibility and Performance of a Gel-Adhesive Pad System for Pediatric Targeted Temperature Management: An Exploratory Analysis of 19 Pediatric Critically Ill Patients.

Targeted temperature management (TTM) is an important treatment modality in pediatric neurocritical care. There are different types of devices available to deliver this therapy, but limited pediatric data exist. This quality improvement study evaluates the use of a surface cooling device that uses gel-adhesive pads for TTM in critically ill pediatric patients. An institutional TTM protocol to use the gel-adhesive pad system was developed with three different temperature goals: normothermia (goal temperature 37°C), mild hypothermia (goal temperature 35°C with rewarming duration of 12 hours to normothermia), and moderate hypothermia (goal temperature 33°C with rewarming duration of 24 hours to normothermia). Protocol and device implementation required several different educational sessions for all members of the critical care team. An exploratory analysis was performed for 19 patients with complete clinical and device temperature data. The most common protocol used was normothermia (73.6%). By protocol, time to goal temperature was 58 minutes (22.0-112.8) for normothermia, 46.5 minutes (44.3-48.8) for mild hypothermia, and 93 minutes (46.5-406.5) for moderate hypothermia. Patients remained within ±0.5°C temperature goal 99% (96.0-99.3) of the time in the normothermia protocol, 99.5% (99-100) in mild hypothermia, and 93% (80-100) for the moderate hypothermia protocol. Shivering was the most common adverse event (35%). Our results show that use of the gel-adhesive pad system for pediatric TTM is feasible, efficacious with regard to achieving both a short time to target temperature and maintaining temperature goal, and, in this limited sample, was free from major adverse events. We also defined several technical aspects of device use in pediatric patients that should be considered in future trial design and/or clinical use. Further studies are needed to determine if this device is superior to other cooling devices for temperature management in the pediatric population.

Comparison of Two Surface Cooling Devices for Temperature Management in a Neurocritical Care Unit.

Fever increases mortality and morbidity and length of stay in neurocritically ill patients. Various methods are used in the neuroscience intensive care unit (NSICU) to control fever. Two such methods involve the Arctic Sun hydrogel wraps and the Gaymar cooling wraps. The purpose of our study was to compare these two methods in neurocritical care patients who had temperature >37.5°C for more than three consecutive hours and that was refractory to standard treatments. Data of patients requiring cooling wraps for treatment of hyperthermia at an NSICU at an academic, tertiary referral center were retrospectively reviewed. The average temperature before cooling was 38.5°C ± 0.38°C and 38.4°C ± 0.99°C for the Gaymar and Arctic Sun groups, respectively (p = 0.89). The Gaymar group took on average 16 ± 21.9 hours to reach goal temperature, whereas the Arctic Sun group took 2.22 ± 1.39 hours (p = 0.08). The average time outside of the target temperature was 57.0 ± 58.0 hours in the Gaymar group compared with 13.7 ± 17.1 hours in the Arctic Sun group (p = 0.04). Average duration of using the cooling wraps was similar between the two groups; 81.8% of patients had rebound hyperthermia in the Gaymar group compared with 20% in the Arctic Sun group (p = 0.0089). The Arctic Sun group had a nonsignificant increased incidence of shivering compared with the Gaymar group (40% vs. 18.18%, p = 0.36). We found that Arctic Sun surface cooling device was more efficient in attaining the target temperature, had less incidence of rebound hyperthermia, and was able to maintain normothermia better than Gaymar cooling wraps. The incidence of shivering tended to be more common in the Arctic Sun group.