Search

The article discusses the positive effects of hypothermia on mortality and morbidity and neurologic prognosis following cardiac arrest. The prognostic guidelines developed by the American Academy of Neurology come in handy in cases where no definite prognosis can be made following cardiac arrest or hypothermia.

People who have a cardiac arrest and are defibrillated quickly by police, firefighters, or paramedics have a good prognosis, according to a study of 200 patients in Olmsted County, Minnesota. The city of Rochester in Olmsted County implemented early defibrillation by police in the late 1990s. Five years after their treatment, 79% of these patients were still alive and most had a nearly normal quality of life.

An end-tidal carbon dioxide level of 10 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) or less appears to accurately predict which patients in cardiac arrest will not survive despite cardiopulmonary resuscitation. End-tidal carbon dioxide is an indirect way of measuring cardiac output. The emergency medical technicians of one ambulance service measured end-tidal carbon dioxide levels in 150 patients in cardiac arrest after 20 minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. At that time, a value of 10 mm Hg or less accurately predicted which patients would not survive.