New Horizons in Post-Arrest Care

Summary: Resuscitated cardiac arrest victims receive a complex set of interventions in the hospital to restore brain function and limit organ injury. The state of the art for post-arrest care will be explored, with the latest studies and trial evidence.

Synopsis: Care for cardiac arrest patients after initial resuscitation is a complex and dynamic process, involving actions taken in the emergency department, the critical care unit, and during subsequent days of hospital-based management. Therapies to improve survival include the use of targeted temperature management, coronary angiography, careful blood pressure management, and brain monitoring to detect and treat seizures. In the presentation, post-arrest care best practices and recent evidence will be reviewed, so that hospital providers can have a better understanding of cutting-edge care approaches, and EMS providers can understand what happens after they transfer patients resuscitated from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.