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Updated: Oct 10, 2026

Esophageal Heat Transfer for Patient Temperature Control and Targeted Temperature Management
Published on: November 21, 2017
Successful defibrillation in profound hypothermia (core body temperature 25.6 degrees C)
1Department of Anaesthetics, Royal Hospital Haslar, Gosport, Hampshire PO12 2AA, UK.
Abstract:
We report a case of successful defibrillation in a severely hypothermic patient with a core body temperature of 25.6 degrees C as measured oesophageally. Ventricular fibrillation is a recognised life threatening arrhythmia in severely hypothermic patients. The traditional wisdom is that this arrhythmia is refractory to defibrillation at temperatures below 28 degrees C.
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