Abstract
More than half a million Americans annually suffer a sudden cardiac arrest. Initial resuscitation of the pulseless patient should follow American Heart Association guidelines. Patients with return of spontaneous circulation are at significant risk for rearrest or poor outcome without early and advanced critical care interventions. Early post-arrest management should focus on three parallel goals: diagnosis and treatment of the underlying cause of cardiac arrest, evaluation of the severity of post-arrest illness, and supportive care of the postcardiac arrest syndrome. Patients who remain comatose after cardiac arrest should be cared for at hospital capable of providing advanced cardiac and critical care interventions.
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Abbreviations
- CNS:
-
Central nervous system
- PaCO2:
-
Partial pressure of carbon dioxide
- COPD:
-
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- CT:
-
Computed tomography
- CXR:
-
Chest X-ray
- DKA:
-
Diabetic ketoacidosis
- ECG:
-
Electrocardiogram
- ED:
-
Emergency department
- EEG:
-
Electroencephalogram
- EMS:
-
Emergency medical services
- FOUR:
-
Full outline of unresponsiveness
- GI:
-
Gastrointestinal
- ICU:
-
Intensive care unit
- MAP:
-
Mean arterial pressure
- MRI:
-
Magnetic resonance imaging
- OHCA:
-
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
- PaO2:
-
Partial pressure of oxygen
- ROSC:
-
Return of spontaneous circulation
- RV:
-
Right ventricle
- SAH:
-
Subarachnoid hemorrhage
- TTM:
-
Targeted temperature management
- UA:
-
Urinalysis
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Institute of Medicine. Strategies to Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival: A Time to Act. 2015; Available from: http://iom.nationalacademies.org/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/CardiacArrestReportBrief.pdf.
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Becker, T.K., Elmer, J. (2020). Cardiac Arrest and the Post-arrest Syndrome. In: Shiber, J., Weingart, S. (eds) Emergency Department Critical Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28794-8_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28794-8_11
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