Cardiac Arrest: Complications, Risk Factors, Resources
What is Cardiac Arrest
A cardiac arrest occurs when the normal circulation of blood in the body stops due to the heart not being able to contract as usual. In contrast, a heart attack is when something interferes with the flow of blood to the heart muscle. During a heart attack, there may still be a heartbeat, for at least a limited time. But blood to the heart may be blocked. A heart attack can cause cardiac arrest. The chief problem with the disruption of the normal circulation of blood in the body is that the body parts are not receiving their necessary oxygen. If the brain does not get enough oxygen, loss of consciousness and the cessation of breathing can result. If cardiac arrest is not treated in approximately five minutes, the chances of brain damage are high. If 10 minutes have gone by without treatment, the survival rate drops to less than 5 percent.
If defibrillation cannot be started within three minutes from a person’s collapse from cardiac arrest, the treatment of choice is CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). This procedure should be started as soon as possible and continued until normal heart rhythm returns or until professional help arrives. The chest is strongly compressed repeatedly in order to squeeze blood out of the heart and provide some measure of circulation. The pulmonary part of CPR means rescue breathing to get oxygen into the lungs. If CPR does not work, a therapeutic dose of electric shock with an instrument called a defibrillator can sometimes restore heart rhythm. Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) results when cardiac arrest occurs and the heart rhythm is not restored.
Complications of Cardiac Arrest
The most severe complication of cardiac arrest is death, followed by brain damage as the next worst complication. Other complications are stroke, rupture of the heart and heart rhythm irregularities (too fast, too slow or erratic). If the underlying cause of the cardiac arrest is not addressed, there is a 40 percent chance that another cardiac arrest will occur within a few years. Complications can arise if the cardiac arrest is misdiagnosed. Another complication of cardiac arrest is if the victim regurgitates and inhales some of the material into his or her lungs. Numerous significant complications might result from this problem including acute respiratory distress syndrome or even pneumonia.
Another common misdiagnosis is mistaking cardiac arrest for heartburn and delaying the call for medical help. Side effect from drugs that are supposed to prevent further heart arrhythmias can also occur. Some of these side effects are, paradoxically, an increase in either the heart arrhythmias that they were supposed to cure or other types of arrhythmias.
What Lifestyles are at a Higher Risk For Cardiac Arrest
Certain lifestyle choices can predispose a person to experience SCD. Among these are a sedentary lifestyle, obesity and smoking. In addition, diabetes and a family history of cardiac arrest also have an influence. Eating a healthier diet, engaging in regular exercise, controlling blood pressure, lowering cholesterol and stopping smoking can decrease the chances of cardiac arrest. There are other causes of cardiac attack are not under a person’s control. These include undiagnosed cardiac disease or an abnormality of the heart.
Quick Facts About Cardiac Arrest
1. Warning signs of cardiac arrest include the victim loosing consciousness, normal breathing stops and lose of pulse and blood pressure.
2. Call 9-1-1 immediately to access the emergency medical system if you see any cardiac arrest warning signs.
3. Give cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to help keep the cardiac arrest victim alive until emergency help arrives.
How many people survive cardiac arrest?
No statistics are available for the exact number of cardiac arrests that occur each year. It’s estimated that more than 95 percent of cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital. In cities where defibrillation is provided within 5 to 7 minutes, the survival rate from sudden cardiac arrest is as high as 30–45 percent.
What is the Difference Between and Heart Attack and Cardiac Arrest
heart attack refers to damage to the muscle of the heart, usually from a lack of blood flow. Most of the time a blood clot forms in one of the arteries that supply heart muscle with blood, blocking the flow of blood. As the heart muscle starves it begins to die, causing chest pain and other heart attack symptoms.
Cardiac arrest happens when the heart stops pumping blood. With no pumping action, the blood pressure falls and blood is no longer forced into the muscles and organs of the body. There are all sorts of reasons the heart will stop pumping blood.
Glossary of Cardiac Terms and Definitions
Abnormal: Deviating from the usual structure, position, condition, or behavior. In referring to a growth, abnormal may mean that it is cancerous or premalignant.
Acute: Of abrupt onset, in reference to a disease. Acute often also connotes an illness that is of short duration, rapidly progressive, and in need of urgent care.
Amyloidosis: A disorder that results from the abnormal deposition of a particular protein, called amyloid, in various tissues of the body.
Aortic: Pertaining to the aorta, the largest artery in the body.
Aortic stenosis: Narrowing of the heart valve between the left ventricle of the heart and the aorta.
Aortic valve: One of the four valves in the heart, this valve is situated at exit of the left ventricle of the heart where the aortabegins.
Artery: A vessel that carries blood high in oxygen content away from the heart to the farthest reaches of the body.
Asystole: A dire form of cardiac arrest in which the heart stops beating, there is no systole, and there is no electrical activity in the heart.
Atrium: One of the two smaller chambers of the heart.
Benign: Not cancer. Not malignant. A benign tumor does not invade surrounding tissue or spread to other parts of the body.
Blood clot: Blood that has been converted from a liquid to a solid state.
Blood pressure: The blood pressure is the pressure of the blood within the arteries.
Breathing: The process of respiration, during which air is inhaled into the lungs through the mouth or nose due to muscle contraction, and then exhaled due to muscle relaxation.
Cancer: An abnormal growth of cells which tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled way and, in some cases, to metastasize.
Cardiac: Having to do with the heart.
Cardiomyopathy: Disease of the heart muscle (the myocardium).
Commotio cordis: Sudden cardiac arrest from a blunt, nonpenetrating blow to the chest.
Congestive heart failure: Inability of the heart to keep up with the demands on it and, specifically, failure of the heart to pump blood with normal efficiency.
Coronary arteries: The vessels that supply the heart muscle with blood rich in oxygen. They are called the coronary arteries because they encircle the heart in the manner of a crown.
CPR: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Defibrillation: The use of a carefully controlled electric shock, administered either through a device on the exterior of the chest wall or directly to the exposed heart muscle, to restart or normalize heart rhythms.
Ejection fraction: The portion of blood that is pumped out of a filled ventricle as a result of a heartbeat.
Electrophysiologic: Pertaining to electrophysiology.
Embolus: Something that travels through the bloodstream, lodges in a blood vessel and blocks it.
Fibrillation: In matters of the heart (cardiology), fibrillation is incoordinate twitching of the heart muscle fibers.
Heart: The muscle that pumps blood received from veins into arteries throughout the body.
Heart attack: The death of heart muscle due to the loss of blood supply.
Heart disease: Any disorder that affects the heart. Sometimes the term “heart disease” is used narrowly and incorrectly as a synonym for coronary artery disease.
Heart failure: Inability of the heart to keep up with the demands on it and, specifically, failure of the heart to pump blood with normal efficiency.
Heart rate: The number of heart beats per unit time, usually per minute. The heart rate is based on the number of contractions of the ventricles.
Heart valves: All are one-way valves. Blood entering the heart first passes through the tricuspid valve and then the pulmonary valve. After returning from the lungs, the blood passes through the mitral valve and exits via the aortic valve.
High blood pressure: Also known as hypertension, high blood pressure is, by definition, a repeatedly elevated blood pressure exceeding 140 over 90 mmHg.
Hypertrophic: Exhibiting hypertrophy, as in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: A genetic disorder of the heart characterized by increased thickness (hypertrophy) of the wall of the left ventricle, the largest of the four chambers of the heart.
Hypothermia: Abnormally low body temperature.
Marfan syndrome: An inherited disorder of connective tissue characterized by abnormalities of the eyes, skeleton, and cardiovascular system.
Myocardial infarction: A heart attack. Abbreviated MI.
Myocarditis: Inflammation of the myocardium, the heart muscle.
Myopathy: Any and all disease of muscle.
Pacemaker: A system that sends electrical impulses to the heart in order to set the heart rhythm.
Public health: The approach to medicine that is concerned with the health of the community as a whole.
Pulmonary: Having to do with the lungs.
Pulmonary embolus: A blood clot that has passed into and occluded the lung’s pulmonary artery.
Pulse: The rhythmic contraction and expansion of an artery due to the surge of blood from the beat of the heart.
Recur: To occur again. To return.
Resuscitation: The procedure of restoring to life, as in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Sarcoidosis: A disease of unknown origin that causes small lumps (granulomas) due to chronic inflammation to develop in a great range of body tissues.
Shock: In medicine, shock is a critical condition brought on by a sudden drop in blood flow through the body.
Stenosis: A narrowing, as in: aortic stenosis, pulmonary stenosis, pyloric stenosis, and spinal stenosis.
Sudden cardiac arrest: A medical emergency with absent or inadequate contraction of the left ventricle of the heart that immediately causes bodywide circulatory failure.
Syncope: Partial or complete loss of consciousness with interruption of awareness of oneself and ones surroundings.
Ventricle: A chamber of an organ.
Ventricular: Pertaining to the ventricles, the lower chambers of the heart, as in ventricular fibrillation and ventricular septal defect.
Ventricular fibrillation: An abnormal irregular heart rhythm whereby there are very rapid uncoordinated fluttering contractions of the lower chambers of the heart.
Vessel: A tube in the body that carries fluids.
Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome: A condition caused by an abnormality in the electrical system of the heart which normally tells the heart muscle when to contract. In Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome, there is an extra electrical connection inside the heart that acts as a short circuit, causing the heart to beat too rapidly and sometimes in an irregular manner.
Resources about Cardiac Arrest
American Heart Associations information about cardiac arrest
Mayo Clinic information about sudden cardiac arrest
Harvard.edu Sudden cardiac arrest and symptoms of cardiac arrest
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