The Intensive Care Unit at King Abdulaziz Hospital - Al Ahsa successfully used Cryotherapy, also known as cold therapy, to save a sixty year old patient’s life through lowering his body temperature to around 33 °C.
The patient had arrived to the ER suffering from a cardiac arrest. He was in serious and underwent the necessary medical procedures, receiving resuscitation for more than 20 minutes in order to restore breathing and circulation
Dr. Ahmad Al-Arfaj regional executive manager of in the NGHA Eastern province said: "The patient was transferred directly to the Intensive Care Unit and his condition was deteriorating as a result of an inflammation in his lungs due to a severe bacterial infection, which led to Septicemia (blood poisoning), sudden drop of blood pressure, and cardiac arrest”.
Cryotherapy works on reducing the body temperature to 33 °C for 24 hours after the resuscitation (CPR), and then removing the cooling factors until the body temperature returns to normal without any medical intervention. This technology has been known for more than 10 years but King Abdulaziz Hospital - Al Ahsa is the first hospital to implement such a relatively new technology in the area.
Cryotherapy is used to maintain nerve and brain tissues and protect it from possible damage after going into a coma as a result of a cardiac arrest. The damage might occur as a result of the brain tissue not receiving enough blood. Studies have confirmed that it can save one out of six people in similar cases.
It is worth mentioning that the patient remained in the ICU for more than 10 days under observation, afterwards, the ventilator was removed, and he regained full consciousness.