Pathophysiology, Clinical Course, and Management of Prehospital Ventricular Fibrillation and Sudden Cardiac Death

Abstract

This chapter is divided into four sections, each dealing with a different aspect of the problem of prehospital ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac death as encountered by the authors during the past decade. It includes the clinical and patho-physiologic characterization of this population, the hospital and follow-up course of resuscitated patients, and our present approach to the long-term management of resuscitated survivors. This work was published in greater detail during the past decade [1–3] and is presented here in abbreviated form. We are indebted to our many co-workers who made these studies possible.¹