Dipartimento di Scienze Chirurgiche e Diagnostiche, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
Andreas Lundin
Epidemiology of Psychiatric Conditions, Substance Use and Social Environment (EPiCSS), Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Niklas Nielsen
6 Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Anesthesia & Intensive Care, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Michael Joannidis
18 Division o Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, Dept. Medicine, Medizinische Universitat Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria
Rafael Badenes
Anesthesiology, Hospital Clínic Universitari de València, Valencia, Spain
Fabio Silvio Taccone
20 Department of Intensive Care, Hospital Erasme, Hôpital Erasme - Hôpital Universitaire de Bruxelles (HUB) - Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Matthew Thomas
Akamis Bio Ltd, Abingdon, UK
Paolo Pelosi
Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, San Martino Policlinico Hospital, IRCCS for Oncology and Neuroscience, Genoa, Italy
Denise Battaglini
8San Martino Policlinico Hospital, IRCCS for Oncology and Neuroscience, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
Naomi E Hammond
18 Critical Care Medicine, The George Institute for Global Health, Newtown, New South Wales, Australia
Gisela Lilja
Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Manoj Saxena
Senior Lecturer, Critical Care Division, The George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Janus Jakobsen
Copenhagen Trial Unit, Centre for Clinical Intervention Research, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, UK
Johan Unden
Department of Operation and Intensive Care, Halland Hospital Halmstad, Region Halland, Halmstad, Sweden
Glenn Eastwood
Department of Intensive Care, Austin Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia
Josef Dankiewicz
Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Cardiology, Skåne University Hospital,Lund University, Lund, Lund, UK
Lorenzo Ball
Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, San Martino Policlinico Hospital, IRCCS for Oncology and Neuroscience, Genoa, Italy
Iole Brunetti
Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, San Martino Policlinico Hospital, IRCCS for Oncology and Neuroscience, Genoa, Italy
Wendel-Garcia Pedro David
Institute of Intensive Care Medicine, Zurich, Switzerland, University Hospital of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Michelle S Chew
Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
Annborn Martin
Department of Clinical Medicine, Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Miroslav Solar
Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Hans A Friberg
Department of of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Introduction Mechanical ventilation is a fundamental component in the management of patients post cardiac arrest. However, the ventilator settings and the gas-exchange targets used after cardiac arrest may not be optimal to minimise post-anoxic secondary brain injury. Therefore, questions remain regarding the best ventilator management in such patients.Methods and analysis This is a preplanned analysis of the international randomised controlled trial, targeted hypothermia versus targeted normothermia after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA)–target temperature management 2 (TTM2). The primary objective is to describe ventilatory settings and gas exchange in patients who required invasive mechanical ventilation and included in the TTM2 trial. Secondary objectives include evaluating the association of ventilator settings and gas-exchange values with 6 months mortality and neurological outcome. Adult patients after an OHCA who were included in the TTM2 trial and who received invasive mechanical ventilation will be eligible for this analysis. Data collected in the TTM2 trial that will be analysed include patients’ prehospital characteristics, clinical examination, ventilator settings and arterial blood gases recorded at hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admission and daily during ICU stay.Ethics and dissemination The TTM2 study has been approved by the regional ethics committee at Lund University and by all relevant ethics boards in participating countries. No further ethical committee approval is required for this secondary analysis. Data will be disseminated to the scientific community by abstracts and by original articles submitted to peer-reviewed journals.Trial registration number NCT02908308.