Targeted temperature management after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, no de-implementation required based on network meta analysis

Excerpt

With great interest, we read the systematic review and network meta-analysis performed by Fernando et al. [1]. The effect of targeted temperature management in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a greatly debated subject, recently implemented in international guidelines [2]. The authors conclude that the effect of the targeted temperature management is not beneficial, and might even cause harm by increasing the incidence of arrythmias. These findings warrant de-implementation of this intervention and changing of many national guidelines. Therefore, critical evaluation of the used methodology is required. Although the authors clearly report and performed their study in accordance with relevant guidelines, we believe the chosen methodology is not perfectly suited to evaluate this question. …