IntroductionMild Therapeutic Hypothermia to Improve Neurological Outcome After Cardiac Arrest written by Michael Holzer, MD (2002) conducted research to determine whether mild systemic hypothermia after resuscitation from a Cardiac arrest resulting from ventricular fibrillation improves neurological recovery. Cardiac arrest is known to lead to cerebral ischemia in a short period of time; by cooling the body the hope is to preserve the brain at the cellular level. The author cites many preliminary studies with positive results in patients treated with mild post-arrest hypothermia comparing their outcomes favorably to historical controls. His experience at the Emergency Department of the Medical University of Vienna provides first-hand experience with patients presenting with cardiac arrest. Criticism of this article was formulated by Vlatente (2003) and Burns (2009). Holzer's study included 275 patients, the majority of whom, 77%, were male for unknown reasons; half were treated with hypothermia and the other half with conventional normothermia techniques. This is a reasonably large study for the topic covered and with rigorous inclusion criteria. A total of 3,551 patients were screened to identify 275 eligible patients. The groups were assigned in a randomized, controlled manner with a blinded post-study assessment. The abstract provided in the article showed a good amount of information with a clear and concise basic statement. Within the abstract, the methods discussed were exactly those conducted in the study, and the means of measurement and results were also reported. The problem and purpose of the study were established already in the introduction. The results and conclusions were predictable from the beginning due to the author's strong intention......halfway through the article......using this study as a basis for future research and development. Any condition that affects brain functioning, such as stroke or myocardial infarction, could benefit from hypothermia treatment as a neuroprotective agent. With clearly statistically significant data from this excellently conducted study, provided it can be repeated, it could serve as a basis for integrating this technique into standards of care. ReferencesBurns, N., & Grove, S. K. (2009). The practice of nursing research: evaluation, synthesis and evidence generation. St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier. Holzer, M. (2002). Mild therapeutic hypothermia to improve neurologic outcome after cardiac arrest. The New England Journal of Medicine, 346(8), 549-556. Valente, S. (2003). Critical analysis of research articles. Journal for nurses in staff development, 19, 130-142.