International guidelines recommend targeting normocapnia in adults with coma resuscitated after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. However, normocapnia may be insufficient to restore and maintain adequate cerebral perfusion. Conversely, mild hypercapnia increases cerebral blood flow and may improve neurologic outcomes.

Nevertheless, the most effective Paco2 target in adults with coma resuscitated after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has not been well studied in randomized trials.

Therefore, the Targeted Therapeutic Mild Hypercapnia After Resuscitated Cardiac Arrest (TAME) trial was conducted to test the hypothesis that targeted mild hypercapnia would improve neurologic outcomes at 6 months as compared with targeted normocapnia in adults with coma who had been resuscitated after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Listen to the podcast for more insight into the hypothesis, methodology and findings from the TAME study.

Original paper: Mild Hypercapnia or Normocapnia after Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Speakers

Claudio SANDRONI. Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli, Rome (IT).

Markus SKRIFVARS. University of Helsinki (FI). Chair, ESICM Trauma & Emergency Medicine (TEM) Section.

Chiara ROBBA. University of Genova (IT). ESICM Neuro-Intensive Care (NIC) Section.