Severe accidental hypothermia treated with cardiopulmonary bypass

This case report describes the successful treatment of severe accidental hypothermia with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). A known intravenous drug misuser aged 22 years was found to be unresponsive at his home (winter evening) with a Glasgow coma scale of 3/15. In the ambulance, the patient went into cardiac arrest, cardiopulmonary resuscitation being started. On arrival to the emergency department, he had a core body temperature of 27°C which was refractory to conservative management. He underwent femoro-femoral CPB, which was successful in rewarming the patient slowly. The patient was discharged home with no neurological deficit 10 days later.