Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>In elder patients after out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest, diminished neurologic function as well as reduced neuronal plasticity may cause a low response to targeted temperature management (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TTM</jats:styled-content>). Therefore, we investigated the association between <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TTM</jats:styled-content> (32‐34°C) and neurologic outcome in cardiac arrest survivors with respect to age.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Material and Methods</jats:title><jats:p>This retrospective cohort study included patients 18 years of age or older suffering a witnessed out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest with presumed cardiac cause, which remained comatose after return of spontaneous circulation. Patients were a priori split by age into four groups (<50 years (n = 496); 50‐64 years (n = 714); 65‐74 years (n = 395); >75 years (n = 280)). Subsequently, within these groups, patients receiving <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TTM</jats:styled-content> were compared to those not treated with <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TTM</jats:styled-content>.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Out of 1885 patients, 921 received <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TTM</jats:styled-content> for 24 hours. <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TTM</jats:styled-content> was significantly associated with good neurologic outcome in patients <65 years of age whereas showing no effect in elders (65‐74 years: <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">OR</jats:styled-content>: 1.49 (95% <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CI</jats:styled-content>: 0.90‐2.47); > 75 years: <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">OR</jats:styled-content> 1.44 (95% <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CI</jats:styled-content> 0.79‐2.34)).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>In our cohort, it seems that <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TTM</jats:styled-content> might not be able to achieve the same benefit for neurologic outcome in all age groups. Although the results of this study should be interpreted with caution, <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TTM</jats:styled-content> was associated with improved neurologic outcome only in younger individuals, patients with 65 years of age or older did not benefit from this treatment.</jats:p></jats:sec>