Editorial
Managing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors: 1. Neurological perspective
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Survival
from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is becoming an increasingly common
occurrence, because of defibrillation initiatives and increased public
awareness of basic life support skills.1-4 Two main
factors determine survival from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest:
prompt administration of effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR);
and early defibrillation. In addition to increasing the number of
victims who survive to discharge, these interventions also allow some
individuals to survive who would have otherwise succumbed immediately,
only for them to die later because of the sequelae of cerebral hypoxia.
Thus, there is an increasing population of cardiac arrest victims who
survive with neurological injury. For those who avoid lethal brain
injury, the initial priority is the assessment of the risk of further
arrhythmic events. This is important because treatments such as
revascularisation, antiarrhythmic drugs, and implantable cardioverter
defibrillators (ICDs) reduce the risk of subsequent death in some
subgroups. Resuscitated cardiac arrest victims present a challenge on
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