Thermodynamic assessment of therapeutic hypothermia techniques for rehabilitation of post-cardiac arrest patients

A comparative study of the three main methods for inducing hypothermia in post-cardiac arrest patients is performed. A human thermal model from the literature is adapted to simulate an average adult during treatment using intravascular cooling, extracorporeal cooling, or a combination of both. The investigation is carried out using the temperature profile that best represents the hypothalamus temperature, and uses the destroyed exergy as a quality index. Each of these techniques is modeled by an equation for the exergy efficiency. As a result of the better stability and control of the patient's core temperature, as well as a reduction of destroyed exergy, the model that makes use of both techniques simultaneously proves to be, from a thermodynamic perspective, superior to the others, although each has advantages and disadvantages.