Echocardiography in cardiac arrest

Abstract

Persistent and worsening haemodynamic instability are regarded as clear indications for echocardiography. The focused application of this well established technique within the ALS algorithm provides the resuscitation team with a potentially powerful diagnostic tool that can be used to diagnose/exclude some of the potentially treatable causes of cardiac arrest as well as to guide therapeutic interventions. The impact of routine periresuscitation echocardiography on patient outcomes both for in-hospital and prehospital care remains an exciting avenue for future research.

Post Cardiac Arrest Syndrome

“…Early echocardiography provides information on the extent of myocardial dysfunction and may assist in guiding treatment. 21 The optimal hemodynamic targets in the postresuscitative period remain unclear. In a single-center study using a postresuscitative care treatment algorithm, there was a nonstatistically significant 28% improvement in mortality in 20 patients compared with historical controls.…”

Nursing role in monitoring during cardiopulmonary resuscitation and in the peri-arrest period: A review

“…Sonography can be taught to medical and nursing staff with little or no previous experience. 33 The addition of nursing personnel to the sonographic practice has enhanced the assessment and diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. 34 TEE imaging by critical care nurses has been shown to be a safe method for measuring cardiac index and estimating intravascular volume in patients requiring hemodynamic monitoring in medical and surgical ICUs, because measurements obtained via Doppler imaging correlated well with those obtained via pulmonary artery catheterization.…”

Utilidad de la ecografía en reanimación

“…De estas causas, solo la hipoxemia, la hipotermia e hipo/hiperpotasemia son diagnosticadas fácilmente 23 . Además, solo el 45% de los médicos diagnostican correctamente la ausencia de pulso en un paro cardíaco sin diferenciar entre una AESP y una seudo-AESP, pudiendo no dar un tratamiento a una causa reversible 23 .…”