What is cardiac arrest? A Mayo Clinic heart expert explains

Cardiac arrest, or sudden cardiac arrest because it is extra formally identified, is a medical emergency. It occurs when an occasion, often {an electrical} disturbance, shortly and unexpectedly causes your heart to cease working. It’s not the identical as a heart assault and is referred to as sudden as a result of it appears to occur with out warning.
Dr. Christopher DeSimone, a Mayo cardiac electrophysiologist specializing in irregular cardiac rhythm, solutions questions on cardiac arrest, the variations between cardiac arrest and heart attack, and why time is crucial when treating somebody with cardiac arrest.
Journalists: MP3 audio information of that includes Dr. DeSimone can be found within the downloads on the finish of this submit.
QUESTION: What occurs throughout cardiac arrest?
Cardiac arrest is when the heart can not fulfill its duties and pump blood, particularly oxygenated blood, across the body to get to crucial areas, such because the mind. Now, when there’s an arrest, there are two issues we go over. One might be the heart stops electrically, so the heart is not going to pump. The different one is the heart goes into an irregular or deadly rhythm, which we name ventricular fibrillation. That’s a extra chaotic rhythm of the heart. So electrically this heart’s in a nasty rhythm, and the ventricles are quivering and never pumping out. Ultimately, each issues put you into cardiac arrest, sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac demise. The heart can not fulfill its duties of pumping blood to the lungs and the remainder of the body, so that every one the vitamins and oxygen can get to the tissues of the heart, mind or what have you ever.
QUESTION: Why is fast care, like CPR and AED, so crucial?
Survival is potential with fast, acceptable medical care. Call 911, if ready, first.
Once you recognize that somebody’s suffered or suspect that they’ve suffered a cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac arrest, it is essential to revive the rhythm as quick as you possibly can.
A cardiac arrest may occur wherever we’re in life — within the malls, colleges and at work. And if somebody passes out, you wish to guarantee that they’re respiration, their heart has a pulse and their heart is pumping. If their heart’s not pumping, then what folks must do is emergent CPR.
And each time we stroll by issues within the hallway, no matter buildings we’re in, there are all this stuff referred to as AED, or automated external defibrillators. That’s a type of issues that individuals see on TV the place they’re surprising the affected person again into a traditional rhythm.
Because if that machine notes that the affected person doesn’t have a great rhythm they usually’re on this ventricular fibrillation, the machine will let you know to shock the heart, and the machine will shock. You’re attempting to electrically restart the heart in order that it goes again into its regular rhythm, and you might have regular pumping operate.
QUESTION: Why is time so essential for coping with cardiac arrest?
Time is crucial as a result of the heart’s not pumping blood to the remainder of the body — to not the lungs, to not the mind. The oxygen is not attending to the tissues because it often does when the heart’s pumping usually. Everyone is aware of that point is heart muscle, time is myocardium. When somebody’s having a heart assault, take into consideration the entire body having a heart assault. The mind is not getting blood, the liver is not getting blood, and the kidney is not getting blood. The heart itself is not getting oxygenated blood, so all these tissues may die off.
QUESTION: What is the standard therapy for a person having cardiac arrest?
As quickly as you possibly can set up a rhythm or in case you’re nonetheless doing CPR and have given medicines and doing superior cardiac life assist, a part of that is to place a tube down the affected person’s throat, intubation, and sedate them so that they are below anesthesia.
Sometimes they’re going to even cool the affected person. The affected person won’t be respiration on their very own. A machine will probably be respiration for the affected person. And generally what we do is we additionally cool the affected person down.
We’re attempting to let the tissues that may not have gotten oxygen for minutes — hopefully not hours — recuperate a few of their operate and make the body spend the least power as we are able to. It’s frequent for that to occur in order that we are able to stabilize the affected person.
QUESTION: What is the distinction between cardiac arrest and heart assault?
When somebody has a heart assault, it is extra of a plumbing downside. The main arteries going to the heart get plugged up with a clot. When that occurs, there is a blockage within the plumbing, after which the heart at that space may get weak as a result of it will possibly’t pump as a result of it would not get blood movement to itself. And issues may occur — just like the affected person goes into {an electrical} downside, like sudden cardiac arrest. The plumbing results in {an electrical} downside, that is frequent.
But the heart assault is blocking the plumbing, so blood doesn’t get to the heart. When somebody has a sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac demise, it might be a manifestation of a heart assault. But sudden cardiac arrest does not imply you essentially must have heart blockages.