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Hypothermic Intervention
April 16, 2008 |
Frigid ice, it’s not a common sight in Southwest Florida. But area physicians
are finding that freezing temperatures my hold healing powers. Dr. Sunil Pammi
is a Pulmonary Critical Care Physician with Lee Memorial Health System. He says,
“There’s a lot of data to prove that this is something that’s going to help
people get better more importantly salvage their neurological status. We get
better neurological outcomes when we use hypothermia.” Physicians like Dr. Sunil
are using Hypothermic intervention to help patients with heart attack induced
comas and trauma victims. “Suppose that somebody has a limb that gets cut off in
a construction site. What do you do? You pick up the limb and you put it on ice.
It’s the same concept what we’re doing here is we’re losing blood flow to the
brain and so we’re putting it on ice we’re trying to slow it down,” he says.
Physicians have moved away from traditional ice packs to cooling machines. This
technology makes it easier to induce and control the hypothermic process while
making the patient more comfortable. Dr. Jeffery Scott also works with Critical
Care services with Lee Memorial Health System. He says, “You’ll see the water
circulating and that is basically ice cold, that runs through this pad which is
very comfortable and easy to place for the patient and immediately cools the
patient down much more than the icepacks.” Medications and electrical currents
are used to help monitor a patient’s muscles and body temperature during
hypothermic intervention. While the process is extremely successful for some
patient’s physicians say cooling temperatures cannot be used to treat all
conditions. The American Heart Association recommends the use of hypothermic
intervention for cardiac patients. |
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