Document Detail


Aetiology of unsuccessful prehospital witnessed cardiac arrest of unclear origin.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  16679878     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
OBJECTIVES: To determine, by means of autopsy, the cause of death following unsuccessful cardiopulmonary resuscitation of patients with a witnessed prehospital cardiac arrest of unclear origin. METHOD: Observational study of all prehospital-witnessed cardiac arrest of unclear origin over a period of 19 months in the emergency medical service region of a tertiary care hospital. RESULTS: During the study period, 211 prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation attempts were recorded. In 144 study participants, cardiopulmonary resuscitation was not successful: there was no return of spontaneous circulation. Cardiac arrest of traumatic or other clear origin was not considered, nor were paediatric cases. Thirty out of the 114 remaining patients underwent an autopsy (26.3%). The main aetiology of cardiac arrest in this selected population was ischaemic heart disease in 16 out of 30 patients (53.3%) followed by pulmonary embolism in four patients (13.3%) and vascular disease other than coronary disease in two patients (6.7%). Other causes consisted of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (one patient) (3.3%) and poisoning (one patient) (3.3%). The cause of death could not be identified in six cardiac arrest victims (20%). CONCLUSIONS: Ischaemic heart disease and pulmonary embolism account for 66.6% of all witnessed cardiac arrest with no return of spontaneous circulation.
Authors:
Peter Vanbrabant; Erwin Dhondt; Petra Billen; Marc Sabbe
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine     Volume:  13     ISSN:  0969-9546     ISO Abbreviation:  Eur J Emerg Med     Publication Date:  2006 Jun 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2006-05-08     Completed Date:  2006-12-06     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9442482     Medline TA:  Eur J Emerg Med     Country:  England    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  144-7     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Emergency Department, University Hospital Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. peter.vanbrabant@uz.kuleuven.ac.be
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aneurysm, Dissecting / complications
Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / complications
Autopsy
Cause of Death
Emergency Medical Services*
Female
Heart Arrest / etiology*,  mortality
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Myocardial Ischemia / complications*
Prospective Studies
Pulmonary Embolism / complications*

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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