Treatment for Cardiac Arrest

"These data suggest that familial HCA does not run in this population, and there is no evidence of the increased mortality among family members associated with HCA seen in previous studies." - Anonymous Online Contributor

"Without any intervention, all cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest have a mortality rate closer to 60%. For those who survive, the mortality risk remains low if they remain in hospital for at least 4 hours; however, if they are not ventilated and are kept under adequate observation for 6 hours or more, the risk of eventual death raises dramatically from 13% to 71% when resuscitation has not been successful." - Anonymous Online Contributor

"Heart arrest and cardiac sudden death are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. An understanding of the number of occurrences of these events in the U.S. per year and the associated long-term health effects is important for public education and health policy and prevention goals. The number of cardiac arrest events is likely underestimated because of the rarity of arrhythmias, and the rate is estimated to be approximately 0.16 per 100,000 persons (1,250 per year). More than 1 million adults and children received a cardiac arrest event each year in the U.S., accounting for about 21.5% of sudden death events." - Anonymous Online Contributor

"Heart arrest is a highly lethal condition with survival to discharge less that 10% in the United States. The primary factor that affects mortality and favorable neurologic outcome is an abnormal response to the rhythm. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has led to the development of a series of guidelines recommended by the American Heart Association in 2005 to help improve outcomes. The implementation in clinical practice has demonstrated improved rates of survival. Additional approaches to shockable rhythm management have also shown to decrease shockable rhythm arrest mortality. Results from a recent clinical trial looks at the use of amiodarone after cardiac arrest in adults to determine if it is warranted. The benefit is debated, especially with regard to a benefit in mortality." - Anonymous Online Contributor

"The signs of heart arrest vary according to cause. Although asystole and other non cardiac causes cause fewer symptoms than cardiac causes, the signs of cardiac arrest are asystolic episodes lasting more than 15 seconds." - Anonymous Online Contributor

"While no specific cause for cardiac arrest has been found, there is a risk associated with certain things (such as using drugs, high blood pressure, high heart rate), so individuals are advised to consult their doctor as far as possible. Also, to get some knowledge about certain diseases, the best way to do it is to consult with a doctor, as they might prescribe for the disease, which can lead to a cure." - Anonymous Online Contributor

"The diagnosis of cardiac arrest is based on symptoms of a complete loss of cardiac output, defined as a blood pressure of less than two-third of normal values. There are a variety of causes of cardiac arrest, not all of which can be easily identified and treated in the clinical environment.\n" - Anonymous Online Contributor

"Despite the development of new therapeutic agents with improved safety and efficacy profiles, there are no drugs currently approved by the FDA for use in cardiac arrest for which death has been prevented. No effective treatments have been discovered. While no clinical trials have shown that new therapeutic agents are superior to currently approved agents, their improved safety profiles allow for patients and family members to receive life-saving treatment." - Anonymous Online Contributor

"The average age people experience heart-arrest is 58 with men being younger than women. The time interval from arrest to achieving full defibrillation is 25-30 minutes with cardiac arrest occurring between 0 and 20 minutes after falling from a height of >5m. Rates of survival varied greatly from 5-24%. One of the biggest factors affecting survival was bystander CPR rate of ~30%. Survival was affected by age, gender, place of arrest, and place of cardiac arrest. Rates of cardiac arrest in the UK are 2-3 per 100,000 population, and the global incidence of all in-hospital arrests from 2012 has been reported as 27.3 per 100,000." - Anonymous Online Contributor

"Heart arrest and CPR are the two best resuscitation options to control the heart's circulation in case of an accidental accident. The cardiac arrest is treated in the same way as when it happens. There are 3 methods to help the victim overcome an accidental cardiac arrest:\n• Defibrillation, which is done with the help of two machines: an automated external defibrillator (AED), and a manual external defibrillator." - Anonymous Online Contributor

"Cardiovascular arrest may be caused by a wide spectrum of diseases and presentations that cannot be predicted on the basis of a patient's age or medical history alone. To make a quick assessment of the risk of cardiac arrest in an individual patient, an initial clinical review may be necessary to rule out other possible reasons for abnormal heart rhythms. Even when found in the setting of heart block or pacemaker syndrome, arrhythmias or sudden cardiac death may sometimes be reversible with rhythm-related drugs. An arrhythmia can be treated before irreversible brain damage. Although an implantable cardiac rhythm device was not investigated, one may consider these devices in patients diagnosed with atrial fibrillation or flutter, and when patients have sustained multiple heart block episodes." - Anonymous Online Contributor

"In the last three decades, our attitudes have drastically changed, with respect to what treatments for cardiac arrest patients should receive. Although the current consensus is that patients can be resuscitated with limited or no interventions, we believe that such interventions should receive adequate attention in clinical practice: a single or multiple PEA in the presence of asystole was the most frequent intervention used in the three Belgian hospitals, a PEA alone in the majority of cases, a high-frequency defibrillation at the time of the cardiac arrest in 50%, and a PEA or a new spontaneous ventricular fibrillation in 26% of the cases." - Anonymous Online Contributor