Cardiac Arrest : A Huge Problem For The American Public

Mild hypothermia is generally considered gentle and safe[8] although a minor subset of patients may experience side effects such as infections, coagulation and electrolyte disturbances and potentially life-threatening arrhythmias during post-cardiac arrest care[5].

He became trapped inside his car, sustaining abrasions to his face, forehead and temple, as well as lacerations to his left thigh. By the time the ambulance arrived, he had lost a litre of blood and bruising developed on both thighs, presumably from being crushed. Upon arrival at the hospital, the patient's extremities were cold, he was semicomatose, his blood pressure was low, and he was experiencing tachycardia. All of these signs, and the large loss of blood were indicators the patient could go into hypovolemic shock. Therefore, 3L of saline was administered to manage his condition.

Hypothermia can be prevented by maintaining a neutral thermal environment and reducing heat loss. For prevention in reduction of heat consider the four ways by which the neonate experiences heat loss and intervene appropriately.

The patient is a 72-year-old female who arrived to the emergency department in cardiac arrest. Emergency medical services reports the patient was last seen eating breakfast at her nursing home and was found an hour later face down and unresponsive. After it was determined the patient was in asystole, an intravenous catheter was started and two rounds of Epinephrine was administered. Upon arrival to the emergency department the patient had pulseless electrical activity with sinus tachycardia on the monitor. Airway management was in process with a bag valve mask on 100% oxygen and chest compressions in progress. After intubation and stabilization the

Purpose: The purpose of this speech is to educate and inform my audience of the risks inherent from unintended hypothermia. I’m eager to alert perioperative staff of the potential dangers as well as the preventative measures that can be taken in order to avoid complications associated with unintended hypothermia. My central idea is hypothermia management saves lives.

It is a beneficial treatment that should be implemented as early in patient care as possible, such as, within the EMS system. Through the last century this therapy has been accepted and rejected by many medical professionals. Since medicine is an ever-changing field, future research and practice of hypothermia will dictate if this therapy is more beneficial than harmful, and maybe one day could be a permanent major role, or it may never be used again. Hypothermia has been proved to decrease neurological impairment after cardiac arrest, but also has many limitations that can occur. A major limitation of this therapy is, if continued care cannot be guaranteed by receiving hospitals, therapeutic hypothermia is irrelevant for EMS to initiate. Likewise, if hypothermia is not begun in the field by EMS, then the receiving facilities now will have a delayed time in starting the therapy and anoxic brain injury could have already occurred. EMS agencies can drive the implementation of therapeutic hypothermia in the medical field. This therapy allows EMS providers to have a major role in the outcome of a cardiac arrest patient’s recovery and neurological outcome. With the progression of research and practice, medicine is evolving day after day, and patient mortality and morbidity have decreased over the years. Although, cardiac arrest patients have a poor

Malignant Hyperthermia is primarily thought to be an autosomal dominant genetic disorder that causes a hypermetabolic state after administration of volatile anesthetics. When a patient is under anesthesia, the muscles are usually relaxed, but when a patient is experiencing Malignant Hyperthermia crisis, certain IV anesthesia causes the opposite effect. Most inhaled anesthetics other than nitrous oxide, cause or trigger Malignant Hyperthermia. More specifically, the anesthetic agents: Halothane, Chloroform, and Succinylcholine. The genic condition of Malignant Hyperthermia only becomes apparent when a patient is exposed to certain anesthetics such as halothane, which causes muscle rigidity.

The lack or delay in appropriate treatment for individuals who experience a sudden cardiac arrest has created a major public health disparity. Research into pre-hospital treatment and subsequent implementation has historically seen neglect by the medical and scientific community creating vast differences in survivability of cardiac arrests between demographic groups. In 2010, the American Heart Association and Emergency Cardiovascular Care program developed the 2020 impact goal to reduce death from cardiovascular disease and stroke by 20% and double out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival rates (http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/121/4/586#sec-1). This has prompted a massive influx of research into the disparities that exist and an

Participation in high intensity sporting activities is widely considered to be a contributor to positive cardiac health. However, for a portion of the athletic population, sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) poses a serious risk (Chatard, Mujika, Goiriena, & Carre, 2016). Although considered rare with estimates of one death every three days in the United States (Pigozzi, Rizzo, & Maffulli, 2009), the impact of the often-fatal event resonates through society due to the young age of the athlete and the immediacy of the decline of the perceived healthy person (Chatard et al., 2016).

The case I chose was published in The Baltimore Sun. The title of the article is, Prosecutors: No Charges against Baltimore officer who used Taser on teen. This article is about a 19 year-old teen named George Vonn King Jr. who died from cardiac arrest. The article states that Mr. King was tased several times by police, before going into cardiac arrest (George). This incident took place at the “MedStar Good Samaritan hospital” in Baltimore MD, where Mr. King was admitted as a patient. Mr. King suffered from Meningitis which causes seizures, along with aggressive behavior. When King was asked by hospital staff to move to the intensive care unit, he became aggressive, which may have been because of the medication he received (George). Hospital

Hypothermia has two main types of causes. It classically occurs from exposure to extreme cold. Commonly this includes alcohol intoxication but may also include low blood sugar, anorexia, and advanced age. Hypothermia may be diagnosed based on either a person's symptoms in the presence of risk factors or by measuring a person's core temperature. One of the lowest documented body temperatures from which someone with accidental hypothermia has survived is in a near-drowning of a 7-year-old girl in Sweden. Survival after more than six hours of CPR has been described. Symptoms of mild hypothermia may be vague, Increased urine production due to cold, mental confusion, and hepatic dysfunction may also be present. Hyperglycemia may be present, as glucose consumption by cells and insulin secretion both decrease, and tissue sensitivity to insulin may be blunted. Sympathetic activation also releases glucose from the liver. In many cases, however, especially in alcoholic patients, hypoglycemia appears to be a more common presentation. Low body temperature results in shivering becoming more violent. Muscle mis-coordination becomes apparent. Movements are slow and labored, accompanied by a stumbling pace and mild confusion, although the person may appear alert. Surface blood

Hypothermia is a common problem in surgical patients. Up to 70% of patients experience some degree of hypothermia that is undergoing anesthetic surgery. Complications include but are not limited to wound infections, myocardial ischemia, and greater oxygen demands. The formal definition of hypothermia is when the patient’s core body temperature drops below 36 degrees Celsius or 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Thus, the purpose of the paper is to synthesize what studies reveal about the current state of knowledge on the effects of pre-operative warming of patient’s postoperative temperatures. I will discuss consistencies and contradictions in the literature, and offer possible explanations for the inconsistencies.

This induced state of hypothermia is essential to protect tissue from ischemia and reperfusion injury. If you recall from earlier, ischemia is a deficiency of blood supply due to vasoconstriction. Reperfusion injury is the damage to tissue caused when blood supply returns to tissue after a period of ischemia. Inducing hypothermia stops the process of ischemia from affecting the other tissues in the body. This allows for the regeneration of ATP in the body when blood flow is restored. “Induced hypothermia generates a state of metabolic depression that preserves cellular energy when oxygen and substrates are limited (Alam, 2009)”. Hypothermia constricts the activity of the sodium-potassium adenosine triphosphatase (Na+/K+ ATPase pump) pump. The inactivation of this pump conserves ATP in the cell, suppressing the need for oxygen (Alam,2009).

An assessment of the LOC of the patient is vital for an accurate pain assessment and the administration of analgesia, and the subsequent assessment of its efficacy (Rose, et al. 2011). Regular evaluation of a patient’s LOC helps detect the onset of hypothermia and hypovolaemia. Muehlberger, et al. (2010) state that the development of pre-hospital hypothermia is a directly negative

Without early intervention on average 360,000 people out of the hospital succumb to cardiac arrest. “ Cardiac arrest and sudden death account for 60 percent of all deaths from coronary artery disease”,(Bledsoe, Porter, & Cherry, 2011,2007,2004, p. 1229)There are several causes of sudden cardiac arrest. Most are caused by ventricular fibrillation. “During ventricular fibrillation, the ventricles do not beat normally. Instead they quiver rapidly and irregularly.” When this occurs, the heart pumps very little and blood does not get circulated throughout the body. “ Most of the cases found with sudden cardiac death are related to undetected cardiovascular disease.("Sudden Cardiac Death," 2015, para. 2)Sudden cardiac arrest are immediate and drastic that includes sudden collapse, no pulse, not breathing, and loss of consciousness. “Four rhythms produce pulseless cardiac arrest: ventricular fibrillation, rapid ventricular tachycardia, pulseless electrical activity and asystole.”("Circulation ," 2005, p. IV-58)Other signs and symptoms that could occur prior to sudden cardiac arrest, include fatigue,