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Background: Great changes in medicine have taken place over the last 25 years worldwide. These changes in technologies, patient risks, patient profile, and laws regulating the medicine have impacted the incidence of cardiac arrest. It has been postulated that the incidence of intraoperative cardiac arrest has decreased over the years, especially in developed countries. The authors hypothesized that, as in the rest of the world, the incidence of intraoperative cardiac arrest is decreasing in Brazil, a developing country., Objectives: The aim of this study was to search the literature to evaluate the publications that relate the incidence of intraoperative cardiac arrest in Brazil and analyze the trend in the incidence of intraoperative cardiac arrest., Contents: There were 4 articles that met our inclusion criteria, resulting in 204,072 patients undergoing regional or general anesthesia in two tertiary and academic hospitals, totalizing 627 cases of intraoperative cardiac arrest. The mean intraoperative cardiac arrest incidence for the 25 years period was 30.72:10,000 anesthesias. There was a decrease from 39:10,000 anesthesias to 13:10,000 anesthesias in the analyzed period, with the related lethality from 48.3% to 30.8%. Also, the main causes of anesthesia-related cause of mortality changed from machine malfunction and drug overdose to hypovolemia and respiratory causes., Conclusions: There was a clear reduction in the incidence of intraoperative cardiac arrest in the last 25 years in Brazil. This reduction is seen worldwide and might be a result of multiple factors, including new laws regulating the medicine in Brazil, incorporation of technologies, better human development level of the country, and better patient care., (Copyright © 2014 Sociedade Brasileira de Anestesiologia. Publicado por Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.)

Despite advances related to the prevention and treatment in the past few years, many lives are lost to cardiac arrest and cardiovascular events in general in Brazil every year. Basic Life Support involves cardiovascular emergency treatment mainly in the pre-hospital environment, with emphasis on the early recognition and delivery of cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers focused on high-quality thoracic compressions and rapid defibrillation by means of the implementation of public access-to-defibrillation programs. These aspects are of the utmost importance and may make the difference on the patient's outcomes, such as on hospital survival with no permanent neurological damage. Early initiation of the Advanced Cardiology Life Support also plays an essential role by keeping the quality of thoracic compressions; adequate airway management; specific treatment for the different arrest rhythms; defibrillation; and assessment and treatment of the possible causes during all the assistance. More recently, emphasis has been given to post-resuscitation care, with the purpose of reducing mortality by means of early recognition and treatment of the post-cardiac arrest syndrome. Therapeutic hypothermia has provided significant improvement of neurological damage and should be performed in comatose individuals post-cardiac arrest. For physicians working in the emergency department or intensive care unit, it is extremely important to improve the treatment given to these patients by means of specific training, thus giving them the chance of higher success and of better survival rates.

Cardiocerebral Resuscitation (CCR) is a new approach to the resuscitation of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). The first major component of CCR is continuous chest compressions (also referred to as chest compression-only CPR or "hands-only CPR") advocated as part of CCR for all bystanders who witness a sudden collapse of presumed cardiac origin. The second component of CCR is a new ACLS treatment algorithm for Emergency Medical Services. This algorithm emphasizes uninterrupted chest compressions regardless of other ongoing assignments as part of the rescue effort. A third component has recently been added to CCR, namely aggressive post-resuscitation care. Cardiocerebral resuscitation has increased bystander participation and has improved survival rates in a number of communities. Now is the time for other communities to re-examine their own outcomes with cardiac arrest and consider joining those cities and communities that have doubled and even tripled their survival from OHCA.

Background: Some patients present an overestimated left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) on electrocardiogram-gated myocardial scintigraphy (gated SPECT)., Objective: To establish the relationship between biological factors and overestimated LVEF., Methods: We selected 3838 patients who underwent gated SPECT between May 20, 2000 and September 16, 2005 with normal perfusion images and LVEF > or =50%. The following variables were analyzed: gender (29.4% females and 70.6% males), age (from 20 to 94 years - mean: 56 years), weight (from 33.5 to 150 kg - mean: 79.6 kg), height (from 138 to 220 cm - mean: 171 cm) and BMI (from 13.9 to 54 - mean: 27.2). In a subgroup of 1002 patients who underwent echocardiogram, the diastolic diameter (from 36 to 68 mm - mean 47.5 mm) and systolic diameter (from 22 to 41 mm - mean 29.8 mm) variables were included. The patients were divided into two groups: normal LVEF (< or =80%) and overestimated LVEF (>80%). The odds ratio (OR) for presenting an overestimated LVEF was calculated for each variable using logistic regression., Results: The following odds ratios were found (p < 0.005): female gender OR = 3.585 (95%CI: 2.745 to 4.683), age in years OR = 1.020 (95%CI: 1.011 to 1.029) and height in cm OR = 0.893 (95%CI: 0.829 to 0.962). Weight and BMI were not significantly associated with LVEF (p>0.2). In the subgroup of 1002 patients, a statistically significant influence was found in overestimated LVEF values for the systolic diameter, gender and height variables., Conclusion: Although systolic diameter influences the overestimation of LVEF, the gender and height variables have an independent influence on LVEF overestimation by gated SPECT.