[SCD-FORUM] 57S RE: Cardiorespiratory arrest and sudden cardiac death. Dr. Asensio

[SCD Symposium]

 From a certain point of view, cardiac arrest is the time of death,  
although we all know there is a margin between brain death, legally  
considered in many countries as "death" proper, and cardiac arrest or  
else, tachyarrythmias that condition low output. It would be  
necessary to differentiate also VT/VF from electrical activity with  
no pulse, or asystole as cause of death. We know that on many  
occasions, they are a continuum that we attempt to stop with  
different interventions that are variably successful according to the  
opportunity and efficacy.
 From my personal point of view, the difference may be more semantic  
than practical, due to the great amount of variables to take into  
account: do we consider cardiac arrest as the disappearance of pulse?  
However, many times there is VT or VF, why can we start CPR even when  
there are still slow pulses (escape rhythms or AV blocks in ECG)?  
Again we are involved in a discussion of terms very hard to define  
because of the number of pathophysiological concepts and mostly, due  
to the "dynamics" of events and their sequences. What do experts think?

Enrique Asensio L.
México

--
Dr. Sergio Dubner
President of Scientific Committee

Dr. Edgardo Schapachnik
President of Steering Committee


>
> Dear colleagues,
> I am writing to this list because I would to have some concepts  
> clarified to me regarding the subject of discussion.
> I have looked through several articles, books and journals, and  
> they are not clear in this sense. For instance: the Spanish  
> guidelines for CPR mention that there is a very narrow and  
> arbitrary limit between the concepts of cardiorespiratory arrest  
> and sudden cardiac death, leaving one for statistic limits, and the  
> cardiorespiratory arrest as a clinical approach of the problem.
> My question for the experts:
> Is there some way of defining both concepts, or do they overlap in  
> such a way that they can be used without distinction in related  
> studies and papers?
> Other authors point out “reanimation from sudden cardiac death”.
> Could it be reanimation from a cardiac arrest? Is it not death  
> precisely that, “death”?
>
> I hope you can clarify this dilemma for me, and thanking you in  
> advance,
>
> Dr. Oscar Ruiz Ropero
> Intensivista
> Hospital General Docente. Guantanamo. Cuba.
>
>
>

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