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Medical Forum / General / General / February 2004"Cardiac arrest"
Cardiac arrest Life: More health clubs, schools and airports than ever before are being equipped with AEDs to prevent sudden cardiac arrests — disruptions in the heart's normal rhythm — from proving deadly. at http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20040209-101727-3896r.htm >Cardiac arrest >Life: More health clubs, schools and airports than ever before are >being equipped with AEDs to prevent sudden cardiac arrests — >disruptions in the heart's normal rhythm — from proving deadly. >at http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20040209-101727-3896r.htm Yes, public access AEDs are becoming much more common and that's a good thing, but AEDs do not *prevent* cardiac arrest. They're only useful once cardiac arrest has already occurred. >>Cardiac arrest >>Life: More health clubs, schools and airports than ever before are [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >thing, but AEDs do not *prevent* cardiac arrest. They're only useful once >cardiac arrest has already occurred. The article actually says that AEDs "prevent sudden cardiac arrests... from proving deadly." Anyway, more technically, they are good for ventricullar fibrillation, not cardiac arrest. PF >The article actually says that AEDs "prevent sudden cardiac arrests... >from proving deadly." Ah, okay, the slightly munged HTML copy/paste job led me to misread it. >Anyway, more technically, they are good for ventricullar fibrillation, >not cardiac arrest. Well, heck, as long as we're being technical, v-fib *is* cardiac arrest, along with pulseless ventricular tachycardia, asystole, and EMD. (by clinical definition) Oh, and you left out pulseless v-tach. AEDs are good for that too. Technically, of course. ;-) > Well, heck, as long as we're being technical, v-fib *is* cardiac arrest, > along with pulseless ventricular tachycardia, asystole, and EMD. (by > clinical definition) > > Oh, and you left out pulseless v-tach. AEDs are good for that too. > Technically, of course. ;-) Well, *technically*, while asystole is indeed cardiac arrest, an AED won't shock it. ;-) AEDs are great, but people still need to learn CPR. >Well, *technically*, while asystole is indeed cardiac arrest, an AED >won't shock it. ;-) No, but twitchy ER residents will. "Hey, it worked on 'ER!'" >> Well, *technically*, while asystole is indeed cardiac arrest, an AED >> won't shock it. ;-) > > No, but twitchy ER residents will. > "Hey, it worked on 'ER!'" And in "Flatliners." ;-) >>> Well, *technically*, while asystole is indeed cardiac arrest, an AED >>> won't shock it. ;-) [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > >And in "Flatliners." ;-) What's spookier to me than asystole is pulseless electrical activity. I once checked a 4-year-old drowning victim minutes after she had been declared dead as she had nearly normal PQRST complexes on her rhythm monitor. I could hear her valves opening and closing softly in her chest. But given the time she had been down and the fact that she had no pulses, no blood pressure, no spontaneous respirations, and no pupillary reflexes -- one could still only conclude that she really was dead. It was just hard to walk away from her when you could hear a heart beating, though. PF i'm guessing she wasn't hypothermic... > What's spookier to me than asystole is pulseless electrical activity. > I once checked a 4-year-old drowning victim minutes after she had been [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > PF maybe it's fine v-fib!!! ;) > >Well, *technically*, while asystole is indeed cardiac arrest, an AED > >won't shock it. ;-) > > No, but twitchy ER residents will. > > "Hey, it worked on 'ER!'" >maybe it's fine v-fib!!! ;) Yeah, but I can get fine v-fib off my refrigerator! > >Well, *technically*, while asystole is indeed cardiac arrest, an AED > >won't shock it. ;-) > > No, but twitchy ER residents will. > > "Hey, it worked on 'ER!'" Better would be to check the EKG monitoring leads. Disconnected leads will also produce "asystole." Servant to the humblest person in the universe, Andrew -- Dr. Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD Board-Certified Cardiologist http://www.heartmdphd.com/ ** Who is the humblest person in the universe? http://makeashorterlink.com/?W1F522557 What is all this about? http://makeashorterlink.com/?T13943F77 Is this spam? http://makeashorterlink.com/?N69721867 >Better would be to check the EKG monitoring leads. > >Disconnected leads will also produce "asystole." True, but if it's an AED we're talking about then a disconnected lead produces a voice prompt to check the leads. Most EKGs detect it too. |
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