Beneficial effects of head-elevation during Controlled Automated Reperfusion of the WhoLe Body (CARL) in the pig model

Introduction: Therapy bundles rather than single interventions might improve outcomes in cardiac arrest, CA. However, studying such bundles is challenging. While failing to reproduce historic results in our porcine CA model for controlled automated reperfusion of the whole body (CARL) using extracorporeal circulation (ECC) we deconstructed the therapy bundle and identified head elevation as a confounder for neurologic outcome. Consequently, we studied head elevation as an intervention during CARL.