Physicians have traditionally helped close the curtain around hospital death, ushering families away during the attempt at resuscitation. Separating them from their sick relative may spare the family a trauma and protect the physician’s professional engagement with the experience. But increasingly, it seems physicians might be doing our patients and their families a disservice. Because… Read More…
A 55 year-old man collapses on a city street. We know that he’s more likely to survive if bystanders act quickly to initiate cardiopulmonary resuscitation. But where is this most likely to happen? Does race and socioeconomic status play a role? In short: is a passerby more likely to give CPR in a rich, white… Read More…
In many areas of the world, drowning is a leading cause of death, especially among young children. The latest review in our Current Concepts series describes the pathophysiology of drowning and summarizes the principles of resuscitation, prehospital treatment, and intensive care. According to the World Health Organization, 0.7% of all deaths worldwide — or more than… Read More…
The woman slumps to the floor beside her office desk… No one sees her go down… A colleague hears a thud and rushes in… He calls her name… No response… He checks for a pulse: nothing… “Call 911!” he yells. EMS arrives quickly, and finds the co-worker panicked, but performing good quality chest compressions he… Read More…
Your pulse begins to race and your breath quickens. You saw the elderly man in the blue coat collapse seconds ago, and it was immediately apparent that something was very wrong. You call for help and rush over, beginning compression-only CPR after finding him unresponsive and pulseless on your primary survey. As you connect him… Read More…
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year worldwide. Successful resuscitation is challenging but achievable, requiring an interdependent set of actions that consist of early arrest recognition, early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), early defibrillation, expert advanced life support, and timely postresuscitation care. In a multicenter, randomized trial, Rea et al. compared survival rates… Read More…
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was developed over 50 years ago as a rapid intervention in patients with cardiac or respiratory arrest. The combination of both external chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing is intended to maintain oxygenation of the brain and the heart. Since its inception, CPR has undergone only minimal revision in method. Decades of… Read More…
