Bernard 2002.

Methods	Randomization: pre‐hospital
Participants	Total number of participants 77, mean age 66 years, 33% female Out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest of cardiac cause, ventricular fibrillation as first cardiac rhythm, comatose after resuscitation Participating sites: Australian university and community hospitals Multi‐centre: yes Language: English Allocation concealment: not applicable (odd and even days) Outcome assessor blind: yes Intention‐to‐treat analysis: yes Groups comparable: more females and more bystander CPR in hypothermia group Follow‐up > 80% of randomly assigned participants: yes
Interventions	Therapeutic hypothermia vs standard pre‐hospital treatment protocols and intensive care treatment Means of cooling: ice packs placed around head, neck, torso and limbs Cooling rate: time from ROSC to target temperature: 2 hours Target temperature: 33°C Duration of cooling: 12 hours after target temperature was reached Rewarming: passive after 12 hours, active after 18 hours
Outcomes	Survival with good neurological function to be sent home or to a rehabilitation facility at discharge In‐hospital death Haemodynamic, biochemical and haematological effects of hypothermia For IPD analysis, best ever reached CPC during hospital stay and CPC discharge provided
Notes	Randomization: odd and even days
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	High risk	Odd and even days
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	High risk	Odd and even days
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Treating personnel not blinded
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Complete follow‐up
Other bias	Low risk	No other major biases seen
Funding	Unclear risk	No information provided
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) Good neurologic outcome All outcomes	Low risk	Outcome assessment blinded
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) Survivial Survival	Low risk	Outcome assessment blinded