BACKGROUND Advances in ultrasound imaging technology have made it more accessible to prehospital providers. Little is known about how ultrasound is being used in the prehospital environment and we suspect that it is not widely used in North America at this time. We believe that EMS system characteristics such as provider training, system size, population served, and type of transport will be as...

Worldwide, sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a major problem. It is most frequently caused by ventricular tachyarrhythmias: Monomorphic and polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (VT), torsade de pointes (TdP), and ventricular fibrillation (VF). Beta blockade, ACE inhibition, coronary reperfusion and other treatments have reduced the incidence of VT but pulseless electrical activity (PEA) is increasin...

AIMS In adult cardiac arrest, antiarrhythmic drugs are frequently utilized in acute management and legions of medical providers have memorized the dosage and timing of administration. However, data supporting their use is limited and is the focus of this comprehensive review. METHODS Databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library (including Cochrane database for systematic reviews and Cochrane ...

Background The cardiopulmonary arrest (CA) is a critical situation, where ultrasound is the only diagnostic mode with the possibility of direct action during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CR) in real time, without interfering with the resuscitation maneuvers. Through a structured process with a focused ultrasound (US) examination procedure conforming to the universal algorithm in cardiopulmona...

Massive pulmonary embolism is associated with significant perioperative morbidity and mortality. We report here on a case of a 69-year-old man who suffered a massive pulmonary embolism with pulseless electrical activity during knee arthroscopic surgery. After a diagnosis was made by performing transthoracic echocardiography, the patient was treated with recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activ...

We report a case of a 45-year-old female undergoing an emergency ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgery. The patient had brain metastatic lesions of breast carcinoma with associated hydrocephalus. She had received Adriamycin as a part of chemotherapy regimen for breast cancer. Her preoperative cardiovascular status was normal. Under general anesthesia, the patient had a sudden cardiovascular collap...

Hyperkalemia produces cardiotoxicity through early depolarization of the cell membrane, slowing of ventricular conduction and decreased duration of the action potential. As a patient’s potassium rises, standard teaching describes the sequential appearance of classic electrocardiographic (ECG) abnormalities. Initially peaked T waves are observed. Next, the PR interval prolongs, followed by QRS p...

Background: The cerebral performance category (CPC) score is widely used in research and quality assurance to assess neurologic outcome following cardiac arrest. However, little is known about the results of the CPC in Turkey. Objective: This study aimed to determine whether the CPC is associated with the initial rhythm and resuscitation time following re...