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The PALS team is providing post-cardiac arrest care to an 8-year-old child in the pediatric intensive care unit. Which intervention would the team implement to achieve the primary goal of post-cardiac arrest care, after assuring adequate oxygenation and ventilation?

Select the correct answer to this question.

a.Induce shivering with therapeutic hypothermia.
b.Increase the child's intracranial pressure.
c.Administer glucose to promote hyperglycemia.
d.Ensure adequate mean arterial pressure.

1 Answer

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Final answer:

a.Induce shivering with therapeutic hypothermia. After ensuring adequate oxygenation and ventilation in post-cardiac arrest care for an 8-year-old child, the PALS team would focus on ensuring adequate mean arterial pressure to support organ perfusion. The use of therapeutic hypothermia is to lower metabolic demand, not to induce shivering, and avoiding hyperglycemia is also important.

Step-by-step explanation:

The primary goal of post-cardiac arrest care is to optimize cardiac function and tissue perfusion after return of spontaneous circulation. Once adequate oxygenation and ventilation have been assured in post-cardiac arrest care for a child, one of the interventions that the PALS team might implement is to ensure adequate mean arterial pressure (MAP). Ensuring adequate MAP is vital for the maintenance of perfusion to critical organs, particularly the brain and heart.

Therapeutic hypothermia, or the controlled reduction of body temperature, is another post-cardiac arrest intervention used to reduce the metabolic demand on the brain and heart, thus reducing the risk of further injury. However, it does not involve inducing shivering. In fact, medications are used to prevent shivering during this process. The body is cooled, but not to induce shivering; instead to preserve neurological function by slowing the body's metabolic rate.The maintenance of normoglycemia is also critical, as both hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia can be harmful. Administering glucose to promote hyperglycemia would not be an appropriate intervention. Similarly, increasing the child's intracranial pressure would be contraindicated, as increased intracranial pressure can lead to additional brain injury.

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