BACKGROUND Arrhythmias resulting in cardiac arrest during electroconvulsive therapy have been reported. Most reported cases of cardiac arrest had asystole as the initial rhythm. Pulseless electrical activity as an initial rhythm of cardiac arrest during electroconvulsive therapy has never been reported. Also, thromboembolism after inflation of pneumatic tourniquet during lower limb surgery has ...

A 69-year-old male, an ex-smoker, was admitted with ongoing chest pain of 11 h duration. Past medical history included treated hypertension and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. He delayed seeking medical attention as he assumed the pain to be due to indigestion and kept taking antacids without much symptomatic relief. Clinical examination on arrival was unremarkable. Admission 12 lead electro...

Cardiac arrest is classified based on whether it is treatable using defibrillation or not. It is classified as shockable rhythm (ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia, or non-shockable (asystole and pulseless electrical activity). We present a case of a 72-year-old male Saudi patient not known to have any medical illness that was involved in a road traffic accident. He ...

AIM OF THE STUDY To study factors associated with short-term and long-term survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest presenting with pulseless electrical activity (PEA). MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a retrospective observational study. All out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Helsinki, Finland during 1 January 1997-31 December 2005 were prospectively registered in the cardiac arrest datab...

INTRODUCTION In 2007, Nicosia General Hospital implemented a resuscitation policy. 378 nurses and 120 doctors were successfully trained in advanced life support (ALS) in order to staff cardiac arrest teams. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of cardiac arrest and resuscitation outcomes in Nicosia General Hospital and assess any associations between the survival rate and the patie...

BACKGROUND Coronary thrombosis and pulmonary thromboembolism are common causes of cardiac arrest. We assessed whether the administration of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) during cardiopulmonary resuscitation would benefit patients with cardiac arrest and pulseless electrical activity of unknown or presumed cardiovascular cause. METHODS Patients who were older than 16 years of age and who...

Purpose. To evaluate the safety and efficacy of the Possis rheolytic thrombectomy with or without indwelling catheter-directed pharmacolysis for the treatment of massive pulmonary embolus in patients presenting with right heart strain and/or a pulseless electrical activity (PEA). Materials and Methods. Retrospective review of patients undergoing pulmonary pharmacolysis was performed (07/2004-06...

BACKGROUND Cardiac arrest patients with initial non-shockable rhythm progressing to shockable rhythm have been reported to have inferior outcome to those remaining non-shockable. We wanted to confirm this observation in our prospectively collected database, and assess whether differences in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) quality could help to explain any such difference in outcome. MATER...