13 November 2010

More BBC garbage

Here's an article from the BBC on brain cell cooling which 'could save lives'.

According to the BBC:

In the UK, while some hospitals have introduced therapeutic hypothermia on an experimental basis, it is yet to be accepted as standard practice.

And:
Only a few UK hospitals use the therapeutic hypothermia technique on some patients.

Which rather makes the UK appear backward compared with the US. But what is the truth? It took Dr Grumble just a minute to find out. The answer can be found here.

3 comments:

NHS Nursing Student said...

Well slap my backside and call me sally, 86% is alot more than a few, Mr BBC. Where do they get their data from? Considering the BBC just aired an episode of Horizon focusing on Therapeutic Hypothermia you would think they have alot more to go on.

When I worked in A&E I heared about it being used in our ICU unit "expermimentally". It had the desired results at the time though I don't know how that patient progressed. And that was around 3 years ago. In comparison our ICU unit is tiny when there are two massive teaching hospitals nearby which alot more resources but I do believe it's been used more since in my old ICU unit. On Horizon they talked about it being used more in the states in A&E settings for stab and gunshot wound victims with massive damage to the heart and other major organs. Injuries which which would almost always be fatal are starting to turn survivable thanks to therapeutic hypothermia, in operating theatres too, it musn't be ignored and I hope hospitals have the resources to use it in A&E's and OT's as well as ICU units in the future too. Perhaps they already are, who knows.

Fuddled Medic said...

Thanks for highlighting these Dr G, your on fire today!

Anonymous said...

Therapeutic hypothermia in operating theatres runs the risk of inducing a coagulopathy, which for the patient undergoing surgery is very difficult to manage.

Inadvertant postoperative hypothermia is common enough though!