RT Journal
A1 PARSONNET V, BERNSTEIN A
T1 ROutine cardiac monitoring during surgery and a cardiac-arrest team in a general hospital
JF A.M.A. Archives of Surgery
JO A.M.A. Archives of Surgery
YR 1959
FD March 1
VO 78
IS 3
SP 393
OP 397
DO 10.1001/archsurg.1959.04320030037007
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archsurg.1959.04320030037007
AB The problem of cardiac arrest plagues hospitals throughout the country. It has been estimated that there are 10,000 cases a year in the United States.1 Efforts are being made in many hospitals to reduce the incidence and to increase the survival rate by stressing methods of prevention and therapy; nevertheless, the mortality rate of cardiac arrest remains about 70%.2Survival depends on whether the heart can be restarted and whether death from cerebral anoxia can be avoided. The two prime factors in survival, therefore, are speedy diagnosis and skillful treatment. It is interesting to speculate what the survival rate might be if therapy were perfectly handled.It has been shown that hearts of dead animals and humans can be restarted as long as six hours after death.3 Since approximately 50% of cases of cardiac arrest occur in persons with "normal" hearts, it would seem, therefore, that these