SSEP in Therapeutic Hypothermia Era.

Purpose: The reliability of somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) in predicting outcome in comatose survivors of cardiac arrest treated with therapeutic hypothermia (TH) has been questioned. We investigated whether the absence of cortical (N20) responses was a reliable predictor of a nonawakening in the setting of TH.

Methods: A retrospective review was conducted in cardiac arrest survivors treated with TH admitted to a single tertiary care hospital from April, 2010 to March, 2013 who underwent SSEP testing at various time points after cardiac arrest.