In comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, a target temperature of 31 °C did not significantly reduce the rate of death or poor neurologic outcome at 180 days compared with a target temperature of 34 °C. However, the study may have been underpowered to detect a clinically important difference.

Among 367 patients included in the primary analysis completed the trial.

The primary outcome occurred in 89 of 184 patients (48.4%) in the 31 °C group and in 83 of 183 patients (45.4%) in the 34 °C group.

Of the 19 secondary outcomes, 18 were not statistically significant.

Mortality at 180 days was 43.5% and 41.0% in patients treated with a target temperature of 31 °C and 34 °C, respectively (P = .63).

Patients were randomly assigned to temperature management with a target body temperature of 31 °C (n = 193) or 34 °C (n = 196) for a period of 24 hours.

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