Resuscitation
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To examine the epidemiology of cardiac arrest (CA) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and a large teaching hospital in Sydney and to identify predictors of survival. ⋯ We describe considerable variation in CA rates in NSW. The majority of hospital CAs occur at or soon after admission, and are associated with underlying non-cardiac conditions. Survival following hospital CA is low, but there may be preventable elements. Knowledge of risk factors and epidemiology of hospital CAs may help identify patients at risk of CA.
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Biography Historical Article
Moritz Schiff and the history of open-chest cardiac massage.
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Grain storage containers not only present inherent dangers to the operators, but also to the rescuers if someone falls in. Here we report the rescue of a patient from a grain container using a novel technique involving a cylinder placed around the patient. ⋯ The rescue action was complicated by acute chest pain in the patient while he was submerged in the grain, and a severe asthma attack in the emergency physician. The rescue and the dilemmas encountered are described together with a review of the relevant literature.
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To describe survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest in relation to the interval between collapse and start of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). ⋯ Among patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest in whom the interval between collapse and start of CPR was known, we found that in 80% of the cases CPR was started within the first minute after collapse. Among these patients, survival to discharge was twice that of patients in whom CPR was started later. These results highlight the importance of immediate CPR after in-hospital cardiac arrest.