Three patients are described who sustained injuries around the time of a collapse that led to out of hospital cardiac arrest. In this group of patients the importance of taking a complete medical history and recording the circumstances of the syncopal episode cannot be overemphasised. If cardiac output is successfully restored the possibility of occult traumatic injury must be considered in hig...

Abstract Sudden death guidelines make emphasis on the need to identify etihiology of arrest in survived patients or their family members. If cardio–pulmonary resuscitation techniques are almost standardized throughout world, intra– and post–hospital treatment patient changes different centers countries. The local discrepancies related survival rate can instead be considered as an indirect index...

The U.S. national out-of-hospital and in-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates, although improving recently, have remained suboptimal despite the collective efforts of individuals, communities, and professional societies. Only until very recently, and still with inconsistency, has focus been placed specifically on survival with pre-arrest neurologic function. The reality of current approaches ...

BACKGROUND The implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) is the most effective treatment for preventing arrhythmic deaths in patients with heart failure, but periprocedural complications, including in-hospital mortality or cardiac arrest, may occur, and little is known about risk factors. We asked whether elevated B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) level is associated with increased risk of in...

Prehospital cardiac arrest has been associated with a very poor prognosis. Acute myocardial infarction and massive pulmonary embolism are the underlying causes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in 50-70% of patients. Although fibrinolysis is an effective treatment strategy for both myocardial infarction and pulmonary embolism, clinical experience for this therapy performed during resuscitation ...

BACKGROUND Practice guidelines recommend regional systems of care for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. However, whether emergency medical services should bypass nonpercutaneous cardiac intervention (non-PCI) facilities and transport out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients directly to PCI centers despite longer transport time remains unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS Using the Cardiac Arrest Registr...

Introduction: Cardiac arrest following trauma occurs infrequently compared with cardiac aetiology. Within the German Resuscitation Registry a traumatic cause is documented in about 3% of cardiac arrest patients. Regarding the national Trauma Registry, only a few of these trauma patients with cardiac arrest survive. The aim of the present study was to analyze the outcome of cardiopulmonary resus...

BACKGROUND Prediction of the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) in cardiac arrest patients is a parameter for deciding when to stop cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or to start extracorporeal CPR. We investigated the change in transcutaneous PCO2 (PtcCO2) in cardiac arrest patients. METHODS This study was carried out as a retrospective chart review. Patients with out-of-hospital card...

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the clinical profile of patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest using the Utstein style. Methods: This study is an observational, prospective, longitudinal study of patients with cardiac arrest treated in intensive care units over a period of 1 year. Results: The study included 89 patients who underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation man...