Resuscitation
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Biography Historical Article
Franz Kuhn, his contribution to anaesthesia and emergency medicine.
Franz Kuhn (1866-1929), a German surgeon, made a significant practical and scientific contribution towards the development of modern anaesthesia and emergency medicine. He developed modern, scientifically based concepts in close correlation to practical inventions for every day use. ⋯ In the early 20th century, he wrote several papers on this topic including a remarkable monograph, dealing with the techniques, indications in anaesthesia and emergency medicine and his experiences of endotracheal intubation. Due to a dispute with Sauerbruch on the methods of avoiding a pneumothorax during thoracic surgery and the development of local and regional anaesthesia techniques, the value of his work and his revolutionary ideas were not appreciated until 40 years later.
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Comparative Study
Characteristics and outcome among patients suffering in-hospital cardiac arrest in monitored and non-monitored areas.
To describe the characteristics and outcome among patients suffering in-hospital cardiac arrest in relation to whether the arrest took place in a ward with monitoring facilities. ⋯ In a Swedish University Hospital 47% of in-hospital cardiac arrests in which resuscitation was attempted took place in wards without monitoring facilities. These patients differed markedly from those having arrest in wards with monitoring facilities in terms of characteristics, interval to defibrillation and outcome. A shortening of the interval between collapse and defibrillation in these patients might increase survival even further.
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to analyse the incidence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Nottinghamshire; to ascertain its geographical distribution; and to determine whether the geography of coronary heart disease mortality and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are the same. ⋯ increasing level of deprivation is associated with areas of increased incidence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Nottinghamshire, and the effect is apparently different from that on CHD mortality. There is scope for reducing incidence rates of community cardiac arrest and to introduce strategies to improve survival in areas identified as having high rates of community cardiac arrest.
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Cardiac arrest can occur as a complication of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). To date, few studies have described factors associated with cardiac arrest occurrence and survival during hospitalization for treatment of AMI. We used data from a large national registry of hospitalized AMI patients to identify these factors. ⋯ A higher percentage of women compared to men experienced cardiac arrest (6.0 vs. 4.41%, P < 0.0001). Cardiac arrest prevalence was lower in patients with inferior wall infarction than in other types of ST-elevation infarction. Use of reperfusion therapy (PTCA or tPA) was associated with improved survival compared to hospitalized AMI patients who did not receive such therapy.